Chivalry
by Random One-Shot
Summary: A knight is not soon parted from her princess. Mostly Tatsuki's POV. AU after episode 13.
1. Page 1

**Bleach and all of the things it incorporates are not mine. THEY ARE NOT MINE! So, nobody sue me.**

* * *

Knight In Shining Armor.

A phrase used to describe the classic hero who arrives to save the female lead in her darkest hour.

The Knight In Shining Armor is tall, handsome, polite, probably royalty, and hopelessly in love with his chosen damsel in distress. He is never rude, except to the bad guys. He is never loud, except when shouting orders on the battlefield. He is never anything but perfection, except when he is temporarily losing to the villain in the beginning of a fight.

No one ever thinks of a young, female brat being the Knight.

Luckily, Arisawa Tatsuki never much cared what others thought of her.

She is the Knight In Shining Armor who protects the princess.

Nothing else matters.

God help the idiot who gets in her way.

* * *

I hate cleaning duty. 

If I'm the one who made the mess it isn't so bad, but having a teacher lecture me on why I have to clean up someone else's broken glass is so damn grating on my patience, which isn't too good to begin with. And Chizuru, that horny redhead, was one of my partners. I already had to knock her on the head twice to keep her away from Orihime when she bent over to sweep the fragments into the dustbin. When we finished I was going to track Ochi-sensei down, make her tell me who blackmailed her into forcing this on us, track him down and break his jaw.

Fuck, everybody was gone. Vanished completely. It was a great reminder of how I should be at home or practicing in the gym or anything except performing janitor duty. I'm part of the Student Disciplinary Committee, not the Let's Use Child Labor And Call It Character Build-Up Committee.

Chizuru was bitching again. I found myself chanting _'must not kill my classmate, must not kill my classmate'_. It would definitely keep her away from Orihime, because she would be most dead, but they tend to lock people up for that. I stuck to the next best thing and bitched back.

"Chizuru, this only happened 'cause you made such a big fuss." I said.

"So did you!" Chizuru said right back. The brat!

"What?!" I snarled, feeling the vein in my temple pulse warningly. _'Must not burst a blood vessel over the school lesbian.'_ I reminded myself.

"What?" Chizuru said calmly. Annoying!

Of course, like the magpie she was in a previous life, Chizuru's attention was drawn away from our work by something shiny. In this case, Orihime's hair.

"Hm? What's 'hime doing?" Chizuru asked no one in particular. Then she ran off and left me there.

Now, I'm used to people ditching me. God knows Ichigo had done it often enough. I didn't think much of it, other then adding another tally on my 'Reasons Why I Should Not Allow Chizuru To Live To Graduation Day' list.

However, when she said "Hiiiiiiiiiiiimeeeeeeeeee," in that tone, I knew I had to do an act of prevention. Tatsuki's Fist vs. Chizuru's Head, Round 3 for today.

I dropped the broom and dustpan, and jogged up to where Chizuru was gettin' fresh with Orihime. I'll give the girl this, she is stubborn.

"With your cute face, if you stare into space…."

She wouldn't!

"…I'm gonna kiss you!"

What the hell…. It is Chizuru, of course she would!

I swerved up to Orihime's other side and raised my fist in a warning that never proved to be enough of a deterrent.

"What're you running your mouth about all of a sudden?!" I shouted. The vein went bam-bam-bam in my skull.

"What?!" Chizuru snarled at me. Like she didn't know!

"What?!" I snarled right back.

_'Bring it on you redheaded horndog, I'll show you why I have these karate clothes on!'_

Of course Orihime, sweet pacifist that she is, had to interrupt. She raised a hand up and spoke to us both in a very calming voice.

"There's a… um… a TV show that I want to watch. So let's quit cleaning and go home, 'kay?" Orihime said cutely. No, I'm not a lesbian like Chizuru, I'm just honest. Look at Orihime and tell me with a straight face that she isn't cute. Horrifically, unbearably, crushingly cute.

That actually should have tipped me off that something was wrong. Orihime never skips out on responsibility. I've tried to get her to do it now and then, but it is like getting oil and water to mix. You just can't do it.

I have my dunce moments and it didn't sink in.

Me and Chizuru were speechless for a moment. Inoue Orihime was advocating truancy? It was either a miracle or a sign of the Apocalypse. Then the teenage attitude of 'hey, we can get out of school early!' kicked in, and me and Chizuru quit thinking about it.

Orihime actually started pushing us towards the front gates of the administration building. That was the second big clue that I missed. The girl has, to my knowledge, never raised a hand against someone. Ever. Now she was shoving her two friends (yes, even Chizuru, though some days I wanted to throw her over the fence into the dumpsters) like they were baggage.

"Hurry. Hurry." Orihime chanted as she shoved. I never really knew how strong that girl was until then. I mean, I'd taught her karate and all, but she'd never taken it as seriously as I did.

"You come too, Tatsuki-chan." Orihime said cheerfully. Too cheerfully. Like I would have gone anywhere else when Chizuru was with her.

"W-Wait Orihime!" I stuttered. It didn't stop her. She was a girl on a mission.

"Come on, 'kay?! Please hurry. Hurry!" Orihime said cheerfully.

I finally started to notice the underlying sound of panic beneath the false cheer, the false cheer that I should have recognized from a mile away because of all the times I had been party to it when Orihime was sad and didn't want me to see. Like I wouldn't.

"Come on! Both of you, hurry, hurry!" We were nearly at the doors. Orihime was pushing really hard.

Then she stopped.

I looked back and saw her staring up at the top of another building, like she was looking for something. I saw nothing. I was also sick of wearing my uniform, strange though that may sound. The belt really doesn't hold for very long if you don't knot it properly and I was never good at knotting. My shirt kept falling open.

I ducked away from Orihime's hands and started back for the gym. "Sorry Orihime!" I said as I went. "I want to change my clothes. Sorry, you two go on ahead without me."

I waved and ran off. The way I figured it, worst case scenario was Chizuru feeling up Orihime's thigh and I could always break her hand to pieces for that.

Orihime called me back as I went, but I didn't go back.

I shouted that I'd catch up with her soon, thought that I would be holding her up from her TV show for a few minutes at most, but it doesn't matter. I had promised to protect Orihime when I first met her. I had promised to keep her safe. It doesn't matter that she didn't let me in on what the danger was or that there was any danger at all, she called for me and I left her!

That day I saved her, but not until she had already been hurt.

I failed Orihime and I will never forgive myself for that.

* * *

It wasn't until I had changed back into my school uniform that I began to get a sick feeling in my stomach. 

Something just felt off. I didn't know what it was, but I knew I wouldn't feel better until I got back to Orihime and Chizuru. I tossed my uniform back into my locker without folding it and, after a second of hesitation, grabbed my running shoes. I have the leather loafers that go with my uniform, but I keep the running shoes for going to and from school and for P.E. The leather monstrosities give me blisters.

I stamped my feet into them and started jogging through the gym to the door. My footsteps echoed eerily in the hallway and the noise only intensified my anxiety. I wanted to be with Orihime, damn it all!

I hit the front door and pressed against the bar. The door opened the gym, which was unusually dim even for after school hours, and sunlight blinded me for a moment.

Then I blinked and saw and ran.

Orihime was surrounded by students and someone with Chizuru's distinctive red hair was holding her arm in a way that it was not supposed to go. The students had green stuff on them that shimmered strangely if I looked at it for too long. Everything about them screamed aggression, danger, predator! Orihime was prey in anyone's eyes.

I remembered the lost looking girl with hacked up hair, who stared at her book bag like it was all she needed.

I remembered my promise.

And I decided right then and there that I was going to fucking_ liquefy_ all those bastards with my bare hands.

I'm not Ryo-chan, our star track girl, but when I want to I can move fast. I ran as fast as I could, feeling a deep hatred for whoever designed our skirts. The pleated things flew up if we did anything more then a trot and now God, Chizuru, and anyone else with eyes was seeing my panties.

Then, merciful deities, I was there.

"What're you jerks doing?!" I screamed.

I jumped up behind the zombies (they were zombies, don't ask me how I knew that) and went to work. I have been sparring, practicing and fighting since I was four years old. I'm more comfortable throwing a punch then I am wearing a bra. I'm 5 feet and 1 inch tall, 90 pounds heavy, and totally female (no matter what Keigo insinuates otherwise), but don't fuck with me or my friends!

Four of them were down in half as many seconds. I wasn't breathing hard. Orihime was behind me and the jerks were in front of me. It was going okay so far.

"Tatsuki-chan!" Orihime said behind me. I had to hope that Chizuru wouldn't hurt her anymore, because I didn't want to turn my back on the zombie-people or that thing that was hovering on the wall of the school. It kind of looked like that monster in some American movie I watched with Ichigo once. Hunter or Stalker, I think. Something like that.

I could and did give Orihime a quick look over my shoulder. "I'm sorry Orihime! I didn't notice before that something like that was there," I said.

"So, you can see that thing too?" Orihime asked fearfully.

"I can't see it," I admitted. I turned my head a different direction to keep an eye on the shimmering mass that clung to the wall like old chewing gum. "But I can at least tell where it is. Where the thing that made you cry is, that is."

'Okay, I guess that is the mother-brain, so to speak. Take it out and everything should get easier.'

I couldn't get up to it, so I had to bring it down to me. Something I learned from my fighting is when you need someone to come at you, make sure it is on your terms. Make them wild, angry beyond rational thought, and you can beat them easy.

_'When in doubt, agitate.'_

"Hey, you big shit, over there!" I pointed right at the mass of wobbling light. "You picked the wrong person to pick a fight with! The rule is: Anyone who makes Orihime cry, always gets their ass whipped by me!"

I told myself I wasn't scared.

It said something back to me. Not much, just 'oh?', but now I knew it understood me.

Next thing I knew, I was surrounded again. There were seven of them this time, all ringed around me. A small and giddy part of me couldn't help but feel that it wasn't fair to them. Far more importantly, they had gotten between me and Orihime.

That would not do.

"Outta my way!" I yelled.

Karate chop to the head.

"Next!"

Kick to the stomach.

"Next!"

Left hook to the jaw.

"Next!"

Flying knee to the chin.

"Next!"

Foot to the forehead.

"Next!"

Knuckles to the nose.

"Next!"

Forehead to forehead.

Done.

_'I'm not scared.'_

I scoffed. "Humph, not one worthy fighter in the lot."

As stupid as it sounds, I was a little disappointed.

Then someone was right behind me, grabbing my shoulder. I was spinning around with my elbow coming up automatically in a move that I had practiced over and over with my sensei and I was an inch away from their face when I saw –

-_Chizuru-_

- and stopped cold.

"Run Tatsuki." Chizuru whispered. Her arm was funky, all the veins sticking out grotesquely.

"Chizuru?" I whispered.

"I think something's wrong with me." Chizuru said. I saw to my revulsion that the bulges were traveling up her face. I could see them shoving the skin of her cheek up where they passed underneath.

She squeezed my shoulder and I knew that Chizuru had never had that kind of strength in her life. Only know she did and it was being used on me. Fuck.

Something green flashed from the half-invisible mass and slammed hard into my shoulder. I fell down to the ground and didn't move. Chizuru was knocked away from me.

That disembodied voice floated around to me again. "How do you feel?" It asked me. "The seed I just shot into you will soon grow roots in your body and control you at my whim."

God, it was lecturing like Ochi-sensei.

It was getting hard to breathe for some reason.

There was a thump and then the shifting mass of transparency was seated next to me.

_'I'm not scared.'_

"In other words, that means your body will do what I want. Okay, now cry." It said.

Oh, I wanted to hurt that thing.

I had to settle for telling it to shut the hell up.

I rolled onto my side and, somehow, staggered onto my feet.

"Let Orihime go!" I ordered it.

The bitch laughed at me.

"What's this now? Do you not understand your situation? You've lost almost all control of your body."

Something thick and rubbery brushed against my face.

"Come on now, how about it?" It purred.

The thing brushed my chin again and stayed there, fondling me.

"Come on, come on-"

I bit the bitch and enjoyed every second of it.

The resulting shriek would have been enough to shatter the windows, if they hadn't already been broken.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, DAMN IT?!" It screamed. "Let go!"

It hit me.

I held on.

_'I am not scared. I am a bulldog.'_

"I said let go!"

Another hit.

I wanted to say that it hit like my pet goldfish, but I couldn't with all that not-flesh in my mouth.

Apparently I had reached the limits of its debatable patience.

"I don't need to control you!" It shrieked. There were several popping noises and then I felt blasting pain all over my body where more of the shots hit me.

"Die!" It screamed.

Orihime was screaming my name.

My jaw loosened from the sudden feeling of weakness that spread through my body. I fell back and half turned towards Orihime. She was running towards me. I wanted to tell her not to, she was flashing everyone. Silly, huh?

_'O-Orihime….'_

Don't worry, I won't die.

_'Don-Don't cry….'_

I hate seeing you cry, ya know?

_'O-Ori…'_

I'm the knight and you're the princess.

So, just let me protect you, 'kay?

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Not me.

Not me in my body.

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Orihime on the ground.

My fault.

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Orihime hugging me.

Orihime crying – don't cry –

"_Ori… hime…_." Words forced past corpse lips.

"Tatsuki-chan, this time I'll protect you."

_- don't get hurt for me –_

* * *

There was light and wind and a strange pressure that I felt not with my body, but with my heart. It felt like Orihime. 

_'I am not scared.'_

"Tsubaki!"

Orihime's voice.

I woke up and saw her standing behind a weird shield and flying things floating around her. The sleep daze was still with me and I didn't question any of this.

"_Sacred Solitary Cutting Shield!_ I reject!" Orihime shouted. She made it sound like a battle cry.

A floating thing – _fairy?_ – dropped in front of her and flashed red before zooming off to go at the… the….

It was weird and terrifying, because then I could see the thing, totally. It was like the octopus from hell with a skull mask. Orihime's…. Well, Orihime's _whatever _was going right for it.

But there was that feeling.

That monster had the pressure around it too and Orihime's pressure was strong, but it wasn't stronger then the monster's. Another funny thing about being a fighter for so long is that you can get a premonition of an attack when it is set loose. The moment I saw Orihime let that Tsubaki-whatever go, I knew it wouldn't work. And the shield only guarded her front. And she looked ready to collapse.

Fuck, but why do I always have to arrive too late?

I was right, unfortunately. Tsubaki did hit and it did cause Skull-Face some serious discomfort, if the screaming was anything to go by, but it didn't kill it. Tsubaki got knocked away, Skull-Face jumped clear over Orihime's shield and got ready to come down on top of her. I did not relish the thought of an Orihime pancake.

I had crossed half the distance between Orihime and me before I realized I was moving. It wasn't until I had her in my arms that I realized I could feel a third pressure in the air. It wasn't until I had jumped as far away as I could and found that we were moving way faster then I had intended that I realized the third pressure was _me_!

Orihime and I were traveling fast over the ground and I do mean over the ground. My jump had us moving a foot above the courtyard even as we kept going forward. Ten meters… twenty meters… thirty meters! I panicked and stretched out my legs. I slid and fell onto my knees, sliding along the ground until I banged into the wall of a nearby classroom. Orihime had passed out in my arms. I set her down carefully and got up, feeling strangely energized as I stared down Skull-Face.

I started to tell myself that I wasn't afraid and stopped. Because I no longer was. At all.

"Orihime-san!"

The fairy people were there in front of me then, hovering around Orihime like flies to honey. They felt like Orihime. I could trust them, I knew it. Women's intuition, if you like.

"Keep Orihime safe." I growled.

The one with a crumpled wing, the only one I could name, Tsubaki, hollered at me. "Who the hell are you to order us-" I may have smacked him out of the air. I won't tell anyone the truth about that.

I left Orihime to the care of her little people. As I walked to Skull-Face, feeling bizarrely light, I looked down at my hand and felt the last remaining traces of worry be knocked away by shock, leaving me in a completely indifferent state. Seeing your hand look like it had been dipped in mercury will do that. I could only guess what the rest of me looked like.

Skull-Face hissed at me. "You wretch. I'll eat her in front of you."

"No." That was all I said. It was enough.

Skull-Face howled and rushed me. I know it rushed me. I know it pushed off at me with all her strength.

Here's the funny part.

Until it did that, everything had been moving at normal speed. When it moved fast, it slowed down. Get it? Everything was suddenly moving ten times slower. Everything except me.

I was metal. I was quicksilver, emphasis on quick. I ran forward and there was nothing in the way of resistance slowing me down, not even air. I was moving. Do you enjoy running? Forget that thrill, which is nothing. I was motion, I was the north wind, I was total _ass-kicking speed incarnate_!

_Crack!_

That was the sound of my foot hitting the hard bone material of its mask. When I hit her time sped up again and I got the extreme pleasure of seeing that monster fly into the school wall. The heavy, brick-and-concrete school wall. I could have kissed the contractors.

I settled into a stance and waited. All too soon, the bone white face leered out from the darkness. It shrieked and the green things burst from its skull to fly at me.

Time slowed down again, or at least my perception of it, and I ducked and dodged the projectiles like they stood still, which they nearly did compared to me. I came for that demon, the thing that had made my Orihime cry, and I sucker-punched it right between the eyes with all my momentum and weight going into the hit.

This time it didn't fly.

It **shattered**.

The skull exploded into little fragments, which became dust, which became nothing. It was gone in a second.

No danger.

The fading of an adrenaline rush will leave you shaky at best, downright rubbery at worst. I became very rubbery. As I fell to my butt, there was a curious sensation all over me, like oil was sliding off my skin. I looked down through dazed eyes and saw the metal sheathing that covered my skin just running off and vanishing. I was going back to regular old Tatsuki.

Zippa-dee-doo-da.

_'I want some freaking food.'_

I passed out in the rubble.

* * *

_Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand that's it._

_Thought: Why didn't Tatsuki, Mizuiro, and Keigo get cool spiritual powers too?_

_Idea: I'm an (aspiring) writer and I have a handy-dandy pen name on Tatsuki gets to be a (literal) knight in shining armor and Keigo and Mizuiro get… well, you'll see._

_Please review._


	2. Page 2

**Bleach**** and all of the things it incorporates are not mine. THEY ARE NOT MINE! So, nobody sue me.**

* * *

You've never lived until you've almost died. For those who fought for it, life has a flavor the protected will never know. -_Anon.__from Viet Nam, 1968_

* * *

It was not the first or the last time that I'd woken up feeling like shit. It was unique only in the sense that it was the first time I'd woken up remembering that I felt the way I did because I fought a monster. It is an interesting feeling, let me tell you.

For starters, your joints ache. When your body is moving so fast and so violently, it strains your seams, so to speak. Even curling up your fingers hurts. Think of it as an intro to the arthritis you're probably going to have when you hit seventy years old.

For another thing, you have scrapes _everywhere_. Especially when you're wearing a little skirt like I was. No place is sacred to the stinging.

Finally, you have the biggest motherfucker of a headache. It can be accurately described with one word.

"Hell." I muttered.

"Tatsuki-chan!"

Orihime.

Monster. Chizuru. Orihime. Fight. Green stuff. Fairies. Metal all over me. Me all over the monster. Shattering. Metal going away. Hunger. Fainting.

…I fainted?

Shit, Ichigo could _never_ find out about that. He'd never forget it. By extension, neither would I.

"Tatsuki-chan, open your eyes!" Orihime said, real close to me.

"Forget it Inoue-san. She's still asleep."

What the hell was Keigo doing here?

For that matter, where was here? I wasn't feeling dirt and rubble underneath me. I opened my eyes and saw Orihime's sweet face staring down at me. Either I was dead and in Heaven or alive and somewhere I didn't immediately recognize. Keigo was with me though, so I probably wasn't in Heaven.

"You're awake!" I was embraced in Orihime's legendary spine-snapping hug. The pressure from her arms, combined with the resistance from her gargantuan breasts, will break even the strongest of backs. I didn't want to live as a paraplegic, so I let her hug me only for a second before I pushed loose.

Damn, but it did feel good to be alive. I _was_ alive, of course. Asano is a decent guy, when he isn't being a total fungus, but I don't really see him in my paradise. Nor do I see my paradise as being a rather plain sitting room. I looked around, puzzled. I had absolutely no idea where I was.

"Does anybody know where we are?" I asked.

"Urahara's shop."

I knew that voice too. I turned around on my butt and saw Kojima Mizuiro sitting against the wall with his head in his hands. His fingers were curled tightly into his hair. I couldn't see his face, but his posture didn't make him look too good.

"Kojima-kun isn't feeling very well." Orihime whispered in my ear. "He says he hears things that aren't there."

"_That isn't what I said!"_ Mizuiro snarled. He looked up then and I got a good look at his face. It was a nasty shock. Mizuiro was always kind of delicate and innocent looking. I think that's why so many women like going on dates with him. He's also a hell of a lot more polite then most guys.

The Mizuiro I saw now looked like he'd been spending time in an insane asylum. There was a cornered look in his eyes and his temple was twitching spastically. His lips were curled over his teeth and I could hear him breathing from where I sat.

"I said I hear things in my head, _but they __**are**__ real!_ I'm not crazy!" Mizuiro spat.

Well, wasn't he high-strung….

'_I don't suppose anyone has a glass of tea and some chocolate?' _

It always made me feel better.

As soon as I thought that, Mizuiro looked _right at me_ and said "Tea won't help me Tatsuki, so shut up!"

_'…That was mildly creepy.'_

Mizuiro laughed and it was bordering on hysterical. "_Mildly?!"_ He howled.

"Okay, okay. It _is_ creepy," I said, thoroughly shaken. Gimme a break! How often do you find someone who can hear your freaking thoughts?!

"Mizuiro-kun," Yasutora said from the corner. I hadn't noticed him until then. "You've gotta calm down."

Mizuiro looked torn between crying and screaming. "I _can't_! They're everywhere in my head and they're so _loud and they won't stop--!_"

Things would likely have gone downhill real fast if the door hadn't opened then.

"So, you're finally all awake."

The dude was wearing a beach-bunny hat. Honestly, he was. A heavy jacket was hanging loose over his shoulders, he needed to shave, I could barely see his eyes, and he was looking at us like we were candy.

Is it any wonder I wanted to grab Orihime and run like hell?

"Who's he?" Orihime whispered in my ear.

"Not a clue," Yasutora said from the corner.

Mizuiro did his impressive/terrifying thing again. "Urahara Kisuke. He owns this shop." Mizuiro was glaring at him like Urahara was the cause of all our troubles. For all I knew, he was. He certainly looked smug enough.

Urahara looked pleased. "Ah, you've heard of me?"

"_No!"_

"You're the one who saved us, right?" Yasutora asked.

"That _is_ correct," Urahara said happily. "Well now, wherever shall I begin…."

Even Mizuiro shut up when Urahara started speaking. The guy smiled a lot, but it was _freaky_. I wanted to dig a hole and hide in it.

Urahara told us everything. How Rukia was actually a _shinigami, _or a Soul Reaper, whichever you prefer, and how she had given her powers to Ichigo when she couldn't save his family. How Ichigo had spent the last few weeks fighting Hollows and saving Karakura without anybody knowing it (except Mr. All-Knowing-Hat-And-Clogs here, of course). How prolonged exposure to Ichigo, combined with a threat of danger from our attackers, had woken up our _own_ latent spiritual powers. How a bunch of Hollows were infesting our town because someone was stupid enough to call them here with bait.

He wouldn't tell us _who_ though. I noticed him looking at me when he said that. Apparently he knew me too well. Damn.

He talked for a good few minutes, filling our poor little heads with enough information to make them pop, when Yasutora finally spoke up.

"Hold on a second there…." Yasutora said, sounding as shocked as I've ever heard him.

"Yeah. _Shinigami_ and Hollows… you can't suddenly tell us that and expect…." Orihime trailed off.

I saw what she getting at. She didn't want to believe it. Me? I did. I'm really not that into sci-fi and fantasy like 'hime-chan, but that's probably why I believed Urahara. The beating I'd inflicted on that Hollow was real enough and so were the scrapes on my body from where I'd collapsed into the rubble. It explained why Ichigo was acting weird lately.

"Then you deny the fact that all of you were recently attacked?" Urahara said. He did something real spine-shivery with his eyes then. He went from being half out of reality to intensely focused in a tenth of a second.

"But, that's…." Orihime let it go.

Urahara kept going. "Even as we speak, Kurosaki Ichigo is fighting the Hollows as a _shinigami_. And you five were affected by the extraordinary spirit power that oozes from him. That's how it is." Urahara paused then, getting another look on his face.

"Still though, whether or not you open the door that has appeared before you is up to each of you." He said it like he was discussing electives at school.

Behind Urahara, the door opened. I mean the door that led to the outside.

"Manager…" Came the deep voice. Urahara looked over to where a heavy man with hair pulled back in three different ponytails knelt on the floor.

"…The 'sky crests' have begun converging." The new guy said.

"Preparations?" Urahara asked.

The new man bowed a little. "Complete."

"Then let's go." Urahara turned around for the door, dramatic jacket _swish_ and all.

He stopped a step away and turned to look back at us. "Will you come along?" He actually looked normal when he said that.

Urahara kept walking to the door and the new guy opened it up for him. The light that came through was really bright.

Did this guy have a love for drama or what?

"I will show you what is beyond the door."

He stepped through and disappeared into the light.

…Never mind the last rhetorical question. He _did_ have a flair for drama.

And damn me if I was just going to let him leave me behind like that.

Seriously, now that I'd seen and fought a Hollow, how much scarier could it actually get?

* * *

In the days to come, I would stop asking myself that horridly trouble-attracting question.

As it turned out, it could and _did_ get a lot scarier.

Like, a six-hundred foot tall Hollow with a Pinocchio nosed mask and the ability to fire off Godzilla level atomic blasts from its mouth scarier.

Damn, did I pity Ichigo.

We, all five of us, were standing against the railing high above the ground and watching the Hollow stomp its way into the park. The sky around it had been peeled back like old wallpaper. Urahara had taken his clerk (I guess that's what the other guy was) and two kids (I did not know why he had them and I was pretty sure I didn't want to know) to go help Ichigo with the Hollow invasion. He left us to, in his words, 'watch and then choose.'

I had already made up my mind. Yes, I was terrified. Yes, I was probably going to get my ass kicked. Repeatedly.

But it was _Ichigo_. My oldest friend and my fellow karate practitioner. We had drifted apart somewhat in the last year and a half or so, but we were still friends. I _had_ to help him. Right after I broke both of his arms for keeping this from me. Added to the fact that these ugly Hollows were messing around with _my_ home and…. Well, you get the idea.

To make a long rant short, I was going to fight.

As far as I could see, the expressions on the others' faces weren't as set as mine.

Keigo was chewing his fingernails and muttering little whispers to himself while he watched the Hollow. I remembered how over-the-top he always acted, but now I wondered if that was really how he felt about things. If so, he had my respect for not fainting at the sight of the granddaddy of all Hollows.

Yasutora was as blank as ever. He could have been staring at a painting in a museum for all the look on his face. Then again, he had sort of taken up my place as 'Ichigo's partner' when I met Orihime, so I thought he'd stick with our orange-headed idiot.

Mizuiro was not so much looking at the fight as he was feeling it. What little I had gathered from his mutterings and half-assed descriptions as we came to this point made me think that he could go beyond hearing thoughts, all the way to feeling emotions and having a better sense of that weird pressure that Urahara had called '_reiatsu_' as well. Out of us all, he probably had the best idea of how the fight was going, but it looked like all the conflicting energies were beginning to burn him out. He was pale and he kept a death grip on the railing. I think he would have swayed if he didn't.

Orihime was very quiet. She just kept staring at the Hollow like she was expecting it to vanish. I didn't think she really believed her eyes until she spoke again, in a very little voice.

"'Watch… and then choose.' Is that what he means? …The path that we'll walk..." Orihime closed her eyes and her head sank down.

When I said I'd protect Orihime, what I had meant was that I would keep bullies and such away from her. However, my duties had somehow bled over to the emotional range as well. I was nowhere near as good at making people feel better as she was. The best thing I ever thought to do was hug them and that doesn't really help much, I think. When I saw Orihime look like she did then, the only thing I could think of was to toss an arm over her shoulder and pull her up next to me. So, I did.

"The truth is…" Orihime whispered. "The truth is, I'd never forgotten one bit of it."

'_Huh?'_

"There was just nothing I _could_ do, but doubt my memory."

'_Orihime-chan, you've lost me.'_

"Tatsuki-chan…. What do you think we should do?" Orihime asked me.

"Well…. _I_ am going to fight," I said.

"Surprise." Keigo snarked through his fingertips.

I kicked his knee.

"I'm going to fight," I said as Keigo hopped on one leg and bawled, "because I don't want Ichigo doing this alone anymore. He can't keep this up forever."

"What'cha mean?" Yasutora asked.

"I mean this," I spread my arms wide and gestured all around. "I doubt that Hollow attacks like this are common. Karakura would have been decimated by now if they were. But all of you and me got attacked today and Ichigo wasn't there to beat up the Hollows, to say nothing of all the people who _didn't_ awaken cool powers to save themselves. Ichigo's only one person. It wouldn't need to be an invasion, just two or three spread over the town. How is he going to beat all of them before someone gets hurt if he's alone?"

I got their attention with that. It _was_ a pretty nasty prospect.

It also reminded me of something I'd forgotten. Were my parents okay? Being inside and surrounded by people wouldn't give them any protection. It was basically luck of the draw.

"Arisawa-san is right." Mizuiro whispered weakly. I looked over and saw to my shock that he was nearly doubled up. His forehead was against the railing and his eyes were clenched shut in pain.

"Kojima-kun?!" Orihime said next to me.

"I… I can _feel_ what these Hollows are. I'm not exaggerating in the least when I say that they are abominations." Mizuiro looked up at the fight taking place in front of us and, for the second time that day, I saw an expression I would never have believed Mizuiro could wear. His teeth were bared back in a hateful snarl and his eyes were glaring at the Hollow.

"It just wants to fill itself up with others. There is nothing within it but violence, hate, and a desire to see others suffer. If Ichigo does manage to destroy that thing, I will be very happy to see it die." Mizuiro said quietly, but forcefully.

There was a light in his eyes that I found rather frightening. Mizuiro looked possessed.

"So, I'm with you Arisawa-san." Mizuiro said, looking at the war that was unfolding in front of us.

Then he turned to me and I felt the full force of his conviction and pain in the look he sent me.

All I had to do was look at the Hollow and feel its _reiatsu._ Mizuiro wasn't so lucky. He heard its thoughts, felt its wants, and there was nothing he could do to block it out.

"Let's fight." Mizuiro said.

When a moment of contemplation had passed after Mizuiro's speech, I heard Yasutora's quiet "Yeah."

I wasn't really expecting anything forceful from him in the way of words.

"Orihime-chan?" I asked.

I was sort of torn. On one hand, she had told me about her fairy guys. I had felt her healing powers first hand and I knew that they would be real useful. On the other hand, there was no freaking way I'd ever be all right with her going into a life-or-death fight.

So, I wasn't sure if I felt happy or sad when she said she needed some time to think about it. Probably both.

That left Keigo.

I had no idea what his abilities were. Neither he nor Mizuiro had offered any insight as to what he could do, but they had both gotten out of a situation that demanded effort. That said something, I suppose.

Keigo stopped chewing his nails, which were now down to the quick, and looked at me. Me specifically.

"You know this is dangerous." Keigo said bluntly.

"Yep." I said honestly.

"You know we could die."

"Gonna die someday."

"It won't slow the day down by doing this!"

"No, but maybe I can give someone else more time."

"This is insane!" Keigo finally snapped. I was seeing two hours of high-stress that had been put under a pressure lid finally being let loose.

"We're kids, not superheroes! Let Ichigo handle it; he's been doing good so far! I don't wanna get eaten by a Hollow or whatever they are, I don't wanna die at fifteen, I don't wanna get involved in this, I don't want powers, I don't wanna see ghosts, I don't wanna fight, and I don't wanna be in a team led by the crazy karate chick!"

Keigo was huffing pretty badly after that explosion. I let go of the 'crazy karate chick' comment. He was obviously distressed.

"Feel better?" I asked mildly.

"_No, I do not feel better!"_ Keigo howled.

"Then get lost!" I snarled. "You've made your choice, so go the hell away! We'll take care of this ourselves."

"_No you won't!"_ For the first time history, Keigo was arguing with me. I was more used to him either running away or being an ass, so this was new. I decided to approach it cautiously.

"Yes we _will_, you stupid pansy fuck!"

…Do you really want to see me when I'm reckless?

"_No you won't!_ You're my friends too and I'm not gonna let you do something so fucking stupid without me!" Keigo yelled.

That was all I really wanted.

"Okay, fair enough." I said calmly.

Keigo stared. Keigo blinked. Keigo eventually realized what he had done.

Keigo sighed dramatically and slumped his shoulders. "You always beat me." He whined.

I grinned. Then the Hollow let out one huge blast of red-black energy and dragged me back to reality with a barbed fish hook.

I winced, but I could still feel Ichigo's _reiatsu._ He was okay.

I turned back to Keigo. "You saw that. Are you really in, or did you just say it to get back at me?"

"…I'll think about it." Keigo muttered.

After that, there wasn't really anything left to do but wait for Ichigo to finish his fight.

Which he did.

Victoriously.

Show off.

* * *

It was sunset when we all split up and went our separate ways. Mizuiro and Keigo wandered off together, Yasutora went home by himself and I was walking with Orihime to her house. I was worried about my parents, but Orihime was right in front of me and they weren't.

When it was just me and her, I could feel my mind drifting back to ordinary stuff. Like how all my stuff had been left back at school, how I had ditched cleaning duty, and how I needed to find an excuse for my parents about where I'd been when they got the call from Ochi-sensei.

Right after that, I remembered that Ochi-sensei didn't really care that we skipped class, so there was one less thing for me to worry about.

Normally, me and Orihime would chat about boring stuff while we walked, but today we just kept moving in silence. The town was weirdly quite for some reason. I didn't think anyone other then us had known about the Hollows, but nobody was out on the streets even though it wasn't night yet. It was kinda creepy.

"Tatsuki-chan, do you think Kurosaki-kun really needs help?" Orihime asked out of the blue.

"Sure. It wouldn't hurt him." I answered honestly.

"…Do you think we'd be strong enough to help him? I mean, we did all pass out after beating up only a few Hollows."

That… was actually a good point. I guess I'd chalked it up to it being our first time, but what if that wasn't it? If we were going to faint every time we had to use our abilities, that wouldn't make us much help.

Maybe it was just a matter of endurance and practice. We were using new 'muscles' that weren't used to being used. If we practiced enough, maybe we could build them up to where it wasn't a problem anymore. Maybe.

"I think we just need to get used to this stuff and it'll get easier in time. Like gym class, remember? In the beginning of the school year, you couldn't run half a lap before you got tired. Now you can run a mile nonstop."

Orihime's mile-long endurance test was my worst nightmare come to life. I caught someone selling _tickets_ to the bleachers so a bunch of guys, along with a few girls (Chizuru, damn you and damn your binoculars ), could watch Orihime as she ran around the track loop. Sweating. In a regular bra, because we have yet to find a sports bra that fits her.

I sent fifteen kids to the infirmary that day. They say the bloodstains still linger on the bleacher steps, but I haven't seen anything.

…No, I don't know why I haven't been expelled yet.

"You're not scared at all, are you Tatsuki-chan?" Orihime asked me. I could see her looking at me out of the corner of my eye.

'_Hell yes I am.'_

"Hell yes I am. Did you _see_ the huge Hollow that Ichigo was fighting in the park?! It could have stepped on him and not noticed!" I said.

"But you're still going to fight with Kurosaki-kun?"

"Sure. The guy is my friend." When he wasn't lying to me. Or kissing me. Or kissing Orihime. Or letting Orihime walk home alone after a car nearly runs her over. Or going insane in front of TV crew filming a haunted hospital. Or getting me and Orihime called into the principal's office for failing to stop him from going insane in front of a TV crew.

…Yeah….

'_Die, Ichigo, die.'_

Orihime was still looking at me.

"What?" I asked. "Is there blood on my face?"

Orihime giggled. "No. I was just thinking about how lucky Kurosaki-kun is to have you. That's all."

Now _there_ was something I could agree with. "Yeah. The guy's been a dork lately, but he's _our_ dork. Right?"

"Yep!"

And just like that, I felt better about everything.

Who said Orihime needed her fairies to make magic? All she had to do was smile.

The second we got to Orihime's I called my folks. They were both home and perfectly fine, which kind of irritated me. I'd done all that worrying after all. I told them I was staying over at Orihime's house, mostly because I was dead tired and didn't feel up to walking home. I did manage to find the energy to cook us dinner, but that was more out of survival instinct then anything. I learned my lesson about eating Orihime's cooking a long time ago.

I was… weirdly hungry at dinner. It was like I'd just had a few hours worth of karate practice without a break. I'd forgotten it during the whole 'watch your friend save the town' thing, but I'd been starving ever since I woke up in Urahara's. Orihime didn't eat any more then usual though, so maybe it was just a fluke.

Me and Orihime dumped our uniforms in the washer and took turns in the shower. I borrowed some of her pajamas. Bust size aside, we're alike enough. There is a permanent place for me in Orihime's bed. I've got my own pillow and blanket and everything. It gets kind of cramped with all the linen, but it's fun in the let's-all-giggle-like-first-graders-and-stay-up-late-whispering fun. Being with Orihime is like regressing to your childhood, without the other kids pulling your hair and calling you icky.

"Tatsuki-chan?" Orihime whispered next to me.

"Yeah?" I whispered back. Whispering in the dark is just something you do.

"….If I don't help Kurosaki-kun… will you be disappointed in me?"

Where the hell did she get that idea?

"Orihime, you are the living embodiment of sugar, spice and everything nice. It would be easier to put out the sun."

"Oh. Okay then."

And that was that.

* * *

_Okay, another chapter done and gone. If you think anybody isn't acting the way they should, let me know, K?_


	3. Page 3

**Bleach**** and all of the things it incorporates are not mine. THEY ARE NOT MINE! So, nobody sue me.**

* * *

High school is the area of your childhood where you see the future unfolding: The good looking idiots will get attention, the geeks will hold them up, the cheerleaders will get by from leeching off of the good looking idiots, and you will forge your own niche in the world while you sit back and wonder who designed the whole freaking social system and what the hell were they on at the time. 

_-Myself _

* * *

Morning. 

Songbirds singing, sunlight shining through the window, breakfast smells wafting to your nose and a whole new day to look forward to.

I. Fucking. Hate. Mornings.

The songbirds were bombarded with my curses, the sunlight seared my retinas into uselessness, Orihime's cooking is not a good way to begin your day and it was a Thursday.

I wanted my freaking summer vacation.

"Tatsuki-chan! Breakfast!"

'_Please God, let her have made something edible.'_

Sadly, Orihime's culinary skills held to their original standards. Pickled plums over fried noodles with mustard sauce and tempura zucchini with barbeque dipping sauce.

Gag.

I filled up on the plain white rice and (somehow) managed to choke down a few pieces of the pickled plum mustard dish to appease Orihime. After that I raced her to the bathroom (I won. Hahaha) and found my spare toothbrush and comb right where I had left them from last time. I didn't actually know what time it was, seeing as how my eyes were watering from the taste of breakfast, so I didn't want to get wet in the shower without knowing if I had time.

I came out looking decent and went to scrounge up my uniform from where I had dumped it on the floor last night. Again, I say that I hate the skirt. Hate it, hate it, hate it with all the fury of a thousand hells. On a happier note, I didn't have to carry anything because all my stuff was still at school. Yippee!

Orihime got out of the bathroom, got dressed and we were off. My annoyance with the world in general had faded by that time and the birds singing no longer made me want to shoot them all.

The downside of sleeping over at Orihime's on a school night is that it's a hell of a walk the next morning. There's no transit system near her house. Luckily, I still had my running shoes. I don't know how Orihime can walk such a distance in her loafers and not get blisters.

It was a bright and sunny morning when Inoue Orihime and Arisawa Tatsuki departed for their education and it had every appearance of being a decent day.

Then we ran into Kuchiki.

Rather, Orihime ran up to Kuchiki, but not before whispering in my ear that she didn't want me demanding an explanation from Rukia, or Ichigo for that matter.

You can imagine how well I took that.

"Why not?!"

"Because they are our friends and friends don't go around demanding explanations about their friends' secrets."

"Nor do friends keep secrets from their friends!"

"Well, Kurosaki-kun and Kuchiki-san had good reasons for this! If they had told you about the _shinigami_ and the Hollows, would you have believed them?"

"No, but that isn't the point!"

And so on and so forth.

…Yeah, I caved.

Darn Orihime and her kicked puppy eyes.

So I had to act totally ignorant about the fact that Rukia wasn't human and that she had totally and completely lied to us while we chatted and walked to school. Don't get me wrong, I _do_ like Rukia. I just wanted to ream her for lying to me.

"Kuchiki-san!" Orihime called in her way-to-perky-to-be-legal-at-this-hour voice.

"Ah, good morning Inoue-san, Arisawa-san!" Rukia greeted.

"Let's walk together," Orihime suggested.

It was an order in disguise. Not the kind of order where someone actually commands you to do so something, but the kind of order where you never even consider dong otherwise for an instant because it is _Inoue Orihime_ and she is so damn freaking _cute_ that saying no to her isn't morally allowed.

"You're both certainly up early," Rukia said.

Tell me about it.

'_My bed! I will come back to theeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…!'_

"Yep! Summer is just around the corner and I'm just _so_ excited that I can't sleep in late!" Orihime giggled.

I swear to God that there were fucking _sparkles_ around her when she said that.

"Do you have any plans for summer vacation, Kuchiki-san?" Orihime asked.

Rukia blinked. "Uh…. No, not really."

Orihime got a cat smile on her face. She hummed tunelessly for a moment, and then said, "You know…. In August, there is a big fireworks festival. Me, Tatsuki-chan, and the others were going to go together. Do you want to come with us?"

I smiled. "Yeah, come on Rukia. It'll be fun."

'_And filled with explosions.'_

"Uh…. A fireworks festival?"

'_That's what she just said. Weren't you listening?' _

"Yeah. You should invite Kurosaki-kun too. It'll be like when they filmed the Holy Ground Drop-In here. It'll be fun," Orihime said.

"Yeah, and this time Ichigo and you won't make asses out of yourselves on national television," I said to Rukia.

"Hey, I was trying to stop him!" Rukia shot back.

"Not from where I was standing," I replied.

"Tatsuki-chan, be nice!" Orihime scolded me. "Kurosaki-kun and Kuchiki-san weren't trying to embarrass our school! Kurosaki-kun went to the hospital to be with his family and I bet he just got caught up in the excitement!"

"Uh… Yeah…. _Yeah_, that's it," Rukia said.

'_Liar.'_

"So, Inoue-san," Rukia said. "I thought you weren't very fond of Kurosaki-kun, and yet I find you defending him."

"Well," Orihime drawled. "Actually, if you look closely, he has a funny face."

Rukia giggled.

"Come with us to the fireworks festival," Orihime asked again.

"I'll think about it," Rukia promised.

"Say yes or no!" I ordered.

"Tatsuki!" Orihime said.

I shut up.

"………_whipped………,"_ whispered a voice that topped off at 4'10.

…Oh, damn it all to hellfire. Kuchiki would _DIE!_

* * *

We got to school and zipped through the first couple of periods for the day. 

Ryo and Michiru wouldn't shut up about a living toy they (literally) ran over on the way to school. Ryo seemed more pissed off then weirded out. I think it was because the toy with four-inch stubs for legs managed to outrun her.

I seemed to be the only one who wanted to talk to Ichigo about the whole s_hinigami_ thing. Keigo didn't want to touch the topic with a ten-foot stick, and Mizuiro and Yasutora said that I should just leave it alone and that Ichigo would tell me on his own eventually.

Speaking of Mizuiro, he looked a lot better then he had the day before. He was wearing a diadem made out of some white rock called _seki-seki_. Apparently Urahara had shown up at his door around 1 A.M. with the diadem and a forged doctor's note that let him wear it during class. Mizuiro said that it sucked up the _reiatsu_ of whatever it touched. Basically, as long as Mizuiro wore the thing, nobody's thoughts could touch him and his thoughts couldn't reach out to touch anybody else's. This wasn't enough to keep Mizuiro from bitching about the bill Urahara had slapped on him.

So, I was left alone to marinate in my own frustration over the fact that our dear friend had lied to us about something major _and nobody seemed to give a damn but __**me**_

When Orihime came up to me during our break and asked if I wanted to play a new game she had invented, I agreed mostly out of a desire to vent.

We changed into our gym uniforms, some of the other girls being drafted into our teams along the way by Orihime, and signed out some of the baseball and soccer equipment. Baseccer, the name for Orihime's game, was a combination of baseball and soccer, the only part that interested me being the bit where the pitcher has to kick the ball towards the batter.

I opted to play pitcher for the first round.

By the time we finally got out into the field, we only had a few minutes of break left, so we weren't very organized. It was still fun to have people cheering Orihime and me on though.

"Okay! Come on, Tatsuki-chan!" Orihime called.

The other girls were crowded around behind her, shouting encouragement. I gave the ball one good kick to start it off across the ground and then chased after it, kicking it along as I went to give it more speed.

…And I can't be sure, but I think that the exact moment I got within range to kick it at Orihime, something small and the exact same shade of color as the dusty ground darted out in front of the ball.

I was going too fast to stop it by that time, so….

"Here it comes!" I shouted.

…I just decided to let Nature take its course.

Of course, I didn't necessarily have to imagine that it was Ichigo's head.

I reared my foot back until I was at a 90˚ angle, and then let it fly forward and down.

"_Dragon Bazooka_!"

Don't give me any crap about the name. _I_ like it and _I'm_ the black belt, understand?

"Perfect pitch!" Orihime shouted as she swung the bat towards the ball that was screaming towards her.

…No, I mean literally. The ball was screaming.

Then she nailed it and it went screaming up into the sky. It kind of sounded like '_Impossible!_', but that's probably just my imagination.

"Yay!" Orihime cheered. "First point scored!"

That one kick did so much to release my pent up anger.

So what if Baseccer wasn't likely to become a national sport, or that Ichigo was keeping a secret that involved the safety of our town from us, or that Orihime had gotten alcohol and was about to pour it on someone's head or that….

…Wait, what?

"Orihime, don't pretend like you're gonna dump beer on the coach's head. We don't _have_ a coach for Baseccer."

Orihime pouted. "Aw, but Tatsuki-chan…."

'_How the hell had she been hiding those bottles anyway?'_

"Let's call it a day," I said. "Break's almost over anyway."

"What?! But we just started having fun!" Orihime protested.

"Fear not, Orihime!"

One day, I will find out how Chizuru manages to just pop out like that. Then, I will enlist Orihime's super genius brain to formulate a way to predict when and where she will next emerge. I will be waiting with a flamethrower.

"I shall play with you until – "

_Bam!_

I left Chizuru's unconscious body underneath one of the shower nozzles and then turned it on cold. She'd wake up eventually and the dirt from her fall would be washed off to boot.

Aren't I thoughtful?

* * *

When Ishida Uryuu walked in during third period with his arms covered in bandages, his nose should have been blasting off like a gun for all the whispering that was going on. 

I don't get what the big deal was. I come in late and covered with bandages all the time, but nobody starts whispering about me.

…Well, then again, it is _me._

We got released into lunch and Ichigo invited Uryuu to eat with him and the others. Keigo was freaking out (again) and Uryuu was a total ice bitch, giving off this holier-then-thou attitude, with a dash of _Kurosaki, you stupid strawberry boy, do you really think you're good enough to grace my presence?_ He proved his true nature as a cheap leech when he accepted on the grounds that Keigo would pay.

'_Though I would do the same thing. Does that make me a hypocrite? …Nah.'_

Rukia had disappeared when I wasn't looking. Since she'd been invited into our circle during her first day two months before, both Orihime and Mahana were adamant thatwe go find her. I ducked into the cafeteria for a few rice balls (Orihime had brought her lunch, but I would not share food with her outside of her house. _Ever_) and then caught up with the others outside in the grassy part of the high school. Rukia had somehow gotten into the high branches of a tree. Maybe s_hinigami_ could transform into squirrels?

"Kuchiki-san! Wanna eat lunch with us?!" Mahana called up.

Rukia didn't answer. She just jumped down out a of a branch that was about three times her height from the ground and landed without breaking her ankle. Nor did she flash the world a panty shot.

Most impressive.

Drawn by the radar that girl friends seem to have for each other (or the attraction between Chizuru's eyes and Orihime's boobs), Chizuru, Ryo, and Michiru joined us in a couple of minutes.

Lunch time is like show and tell. Everyone wants to see what everyone else has.

Except Orihime, of course. By now, everyone knew that her lunch box contained nothing but D-E-A-T-H.

"Tada!" Orihime held up a slice of cake. "Today's lunch is a castilla sandwich! Sweet-bean jelly between slices of castilla. An irresistible treat for lovers of sweets."

'_Oh, gag. Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaag.'_

"You made _another_ one of those things?" I asked incredulously.

It was a legitimate thing to ask with incredulousness. A few months back, Orihime had been assigned to make a dessert for her Home Economics class. She'd made a castilla sandwich. It was one of the stories that no one needed reminding of, because no one could ever forget the sight of the Home Economics teacher being carried away in an ambulance because he couldn't stop throwing up. Orihime is the first and only student to be banned from taking a class out of concern for the health of students and faculty.

Ever.

In the _entire history_ of Karakura High School.

I was now watching her eat it with gusto.

From a few feet away, I heard Michiru ask Ryo how Orihime could eat all the sweet stuff that she does and not get fat. Ryo replied with the most common theory in the gossip mill: "Obviously all the nutrition goes directly to her breasts."

And from another section of our happy circle….

"Kuchiki-san, do you have the hots for Kurosaki-kun?" Mahana asked.

'_May you live long and prosper, Mahana-chan.'_

I haven't said it before, so I'll say it now. I love that girl.

Rukia spat out her chocolate milk in a solid geyser. The mist reflected a miniature rainbow. Milk was dripping from her chin and she had an absolutely dumbstruck look on her face. "'Scuse me?!"

Mahana, who is secretly Yasutora's cousin or something, I'm sure of it, pressed onward. "More to the point, what's your relationship with him, honestly?"

Rukia, rubbing her mouth with a handkerchief she'd materialized out of nowhere, stuttered, "_Relationship?!_ We – We're just…."

Rukia stuttered. _Stuttered!_ Mahana, I love you! I love you with teddy bears and chocolate candies!

'_I saw Kuchiki stutter! Yippee!'_

Michiru cut in. "Mahana! That question was way too straightforward!"

Mahana blinked. "What are you talking about? I'm asking for YOU, since you guys were wondering, but couldn't ask."

'_I wasn't wondering….'_

Michiru blushed. Obviously, she _had_ been wondering. "_I_ wasn't wondering…."

Liar, liar, pants on gasoline fueled fire.

"Yes it _was_ you!" Mahana said.

"Yeah, Michiru doesn't get along with Ichigo," I said. Truthfully, she froze like a deer in a car's headlights whenever she saw him.

Michiru pushed her fingers together nervously. "I don't hate him or anything…. I just think that he's a _little_ scary…."

Orihime smiled. "You think so? I think he has a funny face."

Michiru gasped impressively. "What?! Orihime, since when are _you_ comfortable around him?"

We never did get an answer to that, which irritates me. I want to know when Orihime started liking Ichigo too. Mahana drew our attention back to Rukia, asking, "So? When it comes down to it, what's the deal?"

And we all stared at Rukia.

"Kurosaki-kun is….," Rukia whispered.

'_Friend, lover, Hollow chopping buddy, my puppet who will help me enslave you puny mortals, finish the damn sentence Rukia!'_

She did.

"Kurosaki-kun is just a friend," Rukia finished lamely.

Mahana seemed disappointed. "Seriously?"

"Yes."

Michiru whined. "No romantic feelings? Not even a little?"

"Yes, not even a little."

Orihime sighed sadly. "Well that's too bad. It Kuchiki-san liked Kuorsaki-kun, I'd fall for him, then Tatsuki'd fall for him –"

'_Like flaming hell I would!'_

" - …While we're at it, everyone'd fall for Kurosaki-kun together. That way, the girls' team would have an overwhelming victory."

I raised my gaze to the sky, looking for Divine help that would never appear. "This girl's talking about random stuff again…."

Chizuru laughed her creepy lesbian laugh.

"A sudden team competition sounds fun, but…."

She'd understood Orihime better then me. No surprise there, since Chizuru constantly operates at the lower levels of thinking that Orihime is prone to dropping into.

"…I'd rather keep Orihime's first look of ecstasy to myself!"

Chizuru lunged to her feet and ripped off her bow tie.

"On that note, we'll first start with individual competition!"

Then her fingers were popping off the buttons on her shirt.

"Come on Orihime!"

Then she was grabbing for Orihime.

"AS IF!" I shouted

…And right about then my fist collided with her stomach and ended the scene before it skipped over into the X-rated domain.

Chizuru made a sound like the air being let out of a balloon. "Nice punch line," Chizuru said as she fell to the grass.

"Not a 'punch line', a '_punch_'!" I corrected.

Chizuru laughed weakly and reached up a hand at my face. "Come on Tatsuki. Let me and Orihime be – "

And so, for about the millionth time, I spent the better portion of my lunch period trying to stamp Chizuru so far into the ground that she would be declared legally dead before she managed to crawl out.

I didn't succeed, she made one more pass at Orihime's ass as we left school a few hours later, I chased her for a mile, tossed her in a trashcan and sent it rolling down the hill.

Business as usual.

* * *

The next day, Kuchiki Rukia had never existed._

* * *

Done with chapter 3! _

_Next time, meet Yoruichi! I know one of you is looking forward to it._


	4. Page 4

**Bleach and all of the things it incorporates are not mine. THEY ARE NOT MINE! So, nobody sue me.**

* * *

The important thing is this: to at any moment be able to sacrifice what we are for what we could become_. – Charles Dubois_

* * *

I got scared when Rukia was gone.

Not gone as in she left. I could have dealt with that. Rukia had never been to Karakura High at all. People looked at me funny when I asked where she was. None of our Girls-Only circle had ever spoken to her. Ochi-sensei couldn't find her name on the register. Her gym locker had been cleaned out and her nametag was blank.

No one knew Rukia.

No one had ever heard of a Kuchiki Rukia.

She was ghost who had faded from our minds. I found myself questioning, just a little, if she had ever really existed. It was like a disease that ate away at my mind. Was I going insane? _Shinigami_, Hollows, super powers, and girls that disappeared in the night. How could it have been real? I believed in it all, but _how?_

The _Shinigami_ had erased Rukia as effectively as a student erases a wrong answer.

_Poof_, she was gone. No friends to chase her, to teachers to worry about her absence, no police looking up on a missing person's report.

Every bit of evidence that she lived was gone.

It wasn't something I could fight. It wasn't something I could hit. The _Shinigami_ had invaded the minds of dozens of people and wiped out the presence of one of our friends.

That was the power of the Soul Society and it scared me.

* * *

…And, for those of you are wondering, _yes_, I kind of did my Tatsuki-is-an-obsessive-bitch thing again. 

I woke up and walked to school.

No Rukia.

I attended my morning classes.

No Rukia.

I spent my whole break combing the school grounds.

No Rukia.

Orihime didn't know where she was. Neither did Yasutora, Mizuiro, or Keigo. I'd promised Orihime that I wouldn't bother Ichigo, and boy was I regretting it now. I was freaking out by the time the break ended – _no one_ remembered Rukia! – so I swiped a stink bomb from one of the school's jokers (I _am_ on the Student Disciplinary Committee after all. Did you think I wouldn't remember the idiots who like to break into the girls' locker rooms and steal our panties?), tossed it into the administration office, and waited until all the workers had darted out, covering their noses and gagging.

Then I broke the lock off a filing cabinet labeled 'F-Me' and dug around the K's until I was certain that Rukia's file wasn't in it. I wasn't looking in the wrong place, either. As much as it gives me the shivers to say, I know my way around the paper pushers' domain. Part of my status as a member of the Committee means I have to write up weekly reports, and that isn't even counting the crap I have to deal with if I really do wind having to stop some one from messing around. I still have nightmares about the paper cuts.

Shiver, shiver….

I didn't really feel like going back to class. I snuck up onto the roof and hung around watching the clouds for a while. I started thinking that Rukia really had gone for good. She'd just appeared like cat one day out the blue. Was it really so wrong to think that that wasn't how she would leave us? She was a _Shinigami_ after all. Who knew how they operated?

…Scratch that. Someone knew.

I couldn't talk to Ichigo and I wasn't going to break my promise to Orihime.

That only really left one person.

Wondering if this wasn't a huge fucking mistake on my part, I left the school and headed towards Urahara's shop.

* * *

I got lost three times, got chased by a pissed off beast of a dog once, and snagged my skirt hopping a fence. When I finally arrived on the dirt lot in front of The Urahara Shop, I was not the fairest in the land. The two brats were sweeping the dirt around and they both gave me their own versions of a greeting when I came up. 

"Welcome to The Urahara Shop," the little girl said as she bowed. I think her name was Ruri, or Ruruko, or something like that.

"Hey, you're messing up our sweeping!" Shouted the little boy. I didn't have a damn clue what his name was and I frankly didn't care after that greeting. Little pig.

"Hey, is your boss around?" I asked the little girl. She didn't make me feel like kicking something.

"Kisuke-san is in the back. Can we help you?" Rui (Ran? Rei? Damn it, there was an R in the somewhere….) asked.

"Maybe, maybe not. Do you guys know where Kuchiki Rukia is lately? She never showed up for school and everyone's acting weird, like they've never met her before…." I said.

The boy, who was in the middle of a screwed up broom swing, yelped and fell flat on his face. The girl looked faintly surprised.

"You mean you remember Kuch- …Oh! You're one of the ones Tessai-san and Kisuke-san brought here the day before!" Ume (I'm pretty sure there is a U in her name too) said.

"Yeah, I'm Tatsuki. …Who're you again?" I asked.

She gave the _cutest_ little bow.

"I am Tsumugiya Ururu, and he –" Ururu indicated towards the boy who had yet to move off the ground "- is Hanakari Jinta. We work for Kisuke-san."

_U-r-u-r-u._ Well, I was _sort of _on the right track.

"Nice to meet you, Ururu. Now, do you know what happened to Rukia?"

"Um, I do, but…." Ururu looked over at the doors to the shop.

"…I think Kisuke-san should explain this to you. He's the one doing all the planning."

Huh? What planning? I smell a conspiracy!

"Come with me, please," Ururu requested. What could I do, but obey? The little brat was hideously cute.

I hopped over Jinta, who was moaning something about a broken hip, and followed Ururu to the darkened interior of The Urahara Shop. I hadn't actually noticed what the place sold the last time I was there. There were magazine racks, candy racks, a refrigerator filled with soda bottles, those tacky bobble-head things, and a bunch of other things I didn't recognize. Ururu led me past all that to a set of screen doors that opened up as we approached them. That huge Tessai guy stared down at me from a tall height. Not that there is anything that doesn't appear huge when you're only 5"1. Damn my shortness!

"Tessai-san, Tatsuki-san needs to speak with Kisuke-san," Ururu said.

"Mmmm…." Tessai rumbled. Have you ever noticed how the people who are large enough to qualify as their own postal district rumble whenever they talk? Even when they don't mean to? Talk to Yasutora, and you'll get my point.

"Who needs my help?" Urahara shoved his stubble-covered face between the door and Tessai's ribs to lock eyes with me. Against my wishes, he had not managed to become normal in the twenty-four hours since I'd last seen him. The fan he carried hid his grin, but it was there in his eyes.

"Ah, Arisawa-san! What brings you to my humble shop?" Urahara grinned.

Humble indeed. The place smelled like dust and if anyone had purchased anything in the last five years, I'd be impressed.

"I wanna know about Rukia. I can't find her, and no one remembers her at school, and you're the only one left who might know where she went," I said. I was being completely honest; the guy really was my last hope. Darn Orihime and her kicked puppy eyes! I wanted to interrogate Ichigo, but noo_ooo_! I couldn't because that fucking promise! ARGH!

Urahara gave me another one of those creepy eyed looks. "Oh? And what makes you think I know anything about that?"

Actually, I'd been operating on nothing more than hope. However, since I'd talked to dear, sweet Ururu-chan….

"It's 'cause of her," I said, pointing at Ururu. "I mentioned that I remembered Rukia and what she said in response implies that I wasn't supposed to. If she knows that, then I'm willing to bet she knows _why_ I'm not supposed to remember. And I'm betting you do, too."

Take that, smart ass!

Urahara watched me for a moment with a weird look in his eyes, and then snapped his fan shut. "Fair enough," Urahara said. He backed out of his cramped space between Tessai and the door to straighten up.

"I was going to ask Yoruichi-san to explain this all to you and the others later, but I suppose now is as good a time as any. Come in and make yourself comfortable, Arisawa-san."

Tessai left, to go make tea or something, I don't know, and Ururu followed after him. She still had her broom in her hands and it made her look adorable. I kicked off my shoes, entered the sitting room, and plopped down on one of the cushions. A big black cat had claimed another one and was drinking cream out of bowl, while keeping a golden eye on me. Urahara made sure I was comfortable before sitting down himself.

"So, I take it you are not the only one among your peers to notice Kuchiki-san's mysterious absence?" Urahara asked.

"No, it's not just me. Orihime, Sado, Asano, and Kojima all noticed her missing, too. Given the way Ichigo's been moping, I'd say him, as well," I said.

"Well then, why don't you ask him?"

"…I… can't…." Shame. Shame. Shame.

"Eh? Why ever not?"

"I just can't, all right?! Now, where did Rukia go?"

Urahara sighed and rolled his neck. I heard little popping sounds come from the motion. "Last night, Kuchiki-san was forcibly taken back to the Soul Society. She will be put on trial for illegal activities within the human realm and sentenced to death. The execution date is usually one month after the sentence. I have little doubt that she has already been convicted by the 46 Chambers, so that leaves 30 days until she dies."

I blinked.

Urahara looked at me. "I'm sorry. Was that confusing?"

…I blinked again. I wasn't waking up. Damn.

"…No, I got it. Rukia is in _Shinigami_ central and she's gonna get killed in one month because of what she did in this world, which is really the only part I don't get. Aren't _Shinigami_ supposed to help people?" I asked.

"Technically, yes. They are _not_ supposed to share their powers with mortals though, much less spend months telling them intimate Soul Society secrets," Urahara explained.

Eh? Intimate secrets?

"…And the memory wipe thing is Soul Society's way of covering their tracks?" I asked.

"Precisely."

'…_Hey… Waitaminute!' _

"Do _Shinigami_ always do that? Erase the memories of people who have seen them?" I asked.

"Yes," Urahara said, looking faintly surprised. "It's standard operating procedure."

"Is it possible for someone to remember what happened, like in a dream?" I asked.

"I'm… not sure what you mean, Arisawa-san. You yourself should know that the memory erasing procedure is not fool proof, since you remember Kuchiki-san," Urahara said.

"I _mean_, if someone had their memories erased, but it… didn't take, or something, would that person be able to remember what had happened? Would they dream about it?"

"Oh! Oh, yes. That's very possible," Urahara said and, with those words, sealed Ichigo's fate.

'_You tried to erase my memories of Orihime's brother, Kurosaki. You played with my head. But don't worry, I'm not heartless. If you beg __**very**__ nicely, I won't start dismembering you until __**after**__ you've stopped breathing.'_

* * *

In a classroom miles away, Kurosaki Ichigo wondered why he suddenly felt so utterly doomed.

* * *

Going back to Rukia's situation…. 

….

….

Well, _shit_.

I'd only known Rukia for a few months and it was, at best, a school-only relationship. I didn't see that much of her outside of class time. We hadn't exchanged secrets or anything. In fact, she'd probably lied about the stuff she had told us. _Shinigami_ secrecy and all that….

…Still….

She wasn't lying when she laughed at Mahana's jokes. She wasn't lying when she smiled at Orihime's Ichigo faces. She could have opted to avoid us all entirely, but she didn't. Why would she have used us a cover? She could have just been another one of the emo-crowd and stayed alone. She would have had Ichigo for company. I couldn't figure out a reason for a _Shinigami_ to hang around a bunch of teenage girls. I could figure out a good reason as to why Kuchiki Rukia would.

She was my friend.

She wasn't my best friend, not by a long shot. I didn't know jack about her, not really. What I did know was enough for me to make my decision.

She had saved Ichigo, my friend.

She had saved Orihime, my best friend.

She had saved me.

Shortening this whole thing up, I kind of liked her and I really owed her. It might not have been enough for some people, but it was enough for me.

Now, how to get to the Soul Society….

"So, when's Ichigo going after her?" I asked Urahara.

Beneath his beach bunny hat, Urahara's eyebrow raised up.

I frowned. "You can't tell me he doesn't want to go save her," I said. "When is he leaving, 'cause I'm going with him."

And then, Urahara did something that will haunt me until my dying day. Even after that, actually.

He _smiled_.

It wasn't the quirky shop owner smile. His eyes were open and piercing, and his lips were like a bladed edge, and he was so focused, and oh _God_, I never wanted to run away as much as I did right then.

"You never even considered the possibility of just leaving her there, did you?" Urahara asked with something in his voice. Was he _proud_?!

"Of course not," I snarled. What the fuck did he take me for?!

"Nice spirit kid, but it won't get you far with that strength," someone else said. "You'll need some serious training before you'll be of any use to Rukia."

I blinked and turned around. There wasn't anyone else in the room. Just the cat, which was still watching me with that golden gaze. Come to think of it, the cat was kind of pretty. I petted its ears and looked around.

I stopped when I noticed Urahara's shoulders were shaking. His mouth was squashed together so tightly his lips had turned white, and he was rocking back and forth with suppressed laughter.

"What?" I asked.

"Hand. _Off_."

The voice was pure, concentrated Doom™ and it was coming from beneath my left hand. It was like a train wreck. I knew what I would see, I knew I would not like it, and yet I just couldn't help but look. I turned my head left and down. The cat was glaring at me, my frozen stiff hand still holding its ears slightly away from its skull.

I had a sudden, awful feeling of certainty.

Urahara smiled like a little kid and clapped his hands together. "How rude of me! I never introduced you two! Arisawa-san, this is Yoruichi-san! My good friend, and your new trainer," Urahara said happily.

"The cat talked," I said stupidly.

"Smart, aren't you?" The cat said back to me.

I jerkily pulled my hand off the cat's head. "You're the one who is going to train me with this _reiatsu_ stuff?"

"Yes," Yoruichi said, still giving me the 'I am going to KILL you, you idiot' look. "And if you ever pet me again, I will bite off your fingers."

'_Hehe, __**nice**__ kitty.' _

"Um… Yeah," I said. I turned back towards Urahara. "Not that I don't appreciate the gesture, but don't you think there's someone else more qualified to teach this? Someone with hands?"

Urahara grinned. "I assure you Arisawa-san, I have full faith in Yoruichi-san's abilities as a warrior."

"Urahara-san," I said his name for the first time, "I get that you're not the typical guy, but seriously – having your cat train me to storm the Soul Society? That's just-"

There was a yowl of sheer outrage to the left and the next thing I knew, I was rolling on the floor with the world's most angry feline mauling my face.

* * *

Three minutes and a first aid kit later, Urahara cheerfully explained that Yoruichi was _not_ his cat in any way, shape, or form. Yoruichi was his friend, and nothing less. 

Incidentally, if Yoruichi ever attacks you, do _not_ do the following, because it won't do a damn thing to get him off your face:

1 - Jump up and scream. It only makes you swallow cat fur.

2 – Bang your head against the wall. Yoruichi will just jump off and laugh at you. Then he will attack your bare feet.

3 – Expect Urahara to help. He will be busy having a great big laugh at your expense, the fucking sadist.

4 – Think that you will escape with any dignity whatsoever intact, because after twenty seconds you _will_ be on your face and begging for the pain to stop.

And when it is all over and done with, that fuzzy black ball of Hell will curl up on his cushion once more and pretend like nothing ever happened.

However, I no longer felt like saying (out loud) that Yoruichi wasn't going to be a good trainer.

"So, you're going to ask the others if they want to help out?" I asked. I was sitting in a corner, away from Yoruichi. Far, _far _away from Yoruichi.

"Indeed," Yoruichi said. "They have awakened spiritual powers as well, and we will need all the help we can get."

Made sense. Yasutora was Yasutora; you should never pass up an opportunity to have a giant alongside you. Mizuiro was telepathic; that could definitely come in handy. Keigo was…. Well, I reserve judgment on him. Orihime had the Groovy Fairy Squad, offense-defense-recovery all in one. And me? Hey, I'm _me_. 'Nuff said.

"So, you got anything going on right now? School's just about over, and we could meet up with them all while they leave," I ventured cautiously. I wasn't going to forget the claws and teeth ripping into my face anytime soon.

"Good enough," Yoruichi yawned. "Kisuke-san, I'll be taking leave of you now. Good luck with the Kurosaki boy."

'_Eh?'_

I wanted to ask questions, but Tessai magically appeared from nowhere and ushered me out alongside Yoruichi. With my new sensei, who didn't even reach my knees, I started back towards Karakura High School.

* * *

_Next time – Keigo has a heart attack and Tatsuki begins training with her powers. Armor is nice when you have super speed, because tripping means eating dirt at 50 mph._

_Leave a review, kudasai! _


	5. Page 5

**Bleach and all of the things it incorporates are not mine. THEY ARE NOT MINE! So, nobody sue me.**

* * *

A good teacher is a master of simplification and an enemy of simplism. – _Louis A. Berman_

* * *

We arrived at the gates just as everyone was leaving for the last time. The air was filled with that giddy 'no more school!' vibe you only get once a year. With everyone so darn perky, it was easy enough to find Mizuiro, Keigo, and Yasutora, simply because they weren't running around in joyous circles. Rukia being MIA must have gotten to them too. 

Well, Keigo was skipping, but it's _Keigo_, so he doesn't count.

I couldn't see Orihime anywhere, and I wasn't feeling her _reiatsu_ nearby either. There was a vague feeling of _that way, doofus_ when I looked over to my right, but I didn't see anything.

"Arisawa-san, what happened to your face?" Mizuiro asked.

No spastic twitching of the eye, no muttering under his breath, no swaying on his feet, and no feeling of immanent doom emanating from his being. Yep, Mizuiro was _definitely_ feeling better.

"Helloooooooo_oooooooooooooo_, Arisawa-san!!!" Keigo squealed. God help us all, he _squealed._

In a moment of supreme foolishness that he would never, ever, ever, and _ever_ forget, Keigo went to hug something. Not Yasutora, because he is too big to wrap your arms around. Not Mizuiro, because he is Keigo's best _guy_ friend. Definitely not me, because I would have knocked half his teeth loose.

No. Keigo, that hyper active idiot, scooped up Yoruichi-sensei and hugged _him. _

I can't really blame him, you know. It was the beginning of summer vacation, all was merry in the world, and Yoruichi-sensei is fluffy and cuddly looking when he isn't trying to bite your ears off.

I suppose I could have warned him, but some things really are better learned through experience.

That, and they can be damn fun to watch.

Sure enough, there was a single second where you could literally see Yoruichi-sensei's fur go ramrod straight on his back. It kind of made him look like a skinny hedgehog. If I could see his face, I bet anything I would have seen an expression that screamed, 'God damn it, _why_ does everyone keep touching me?! DIE, FOOLISH BRAT!'

Keigo, holding Yoruichi-sensei right up near his face, smiled and _shouted_, right near a cat with sensitive ears, "Hello, Mr. Kitty! How are you this fine –"

Enter the claws.

Four bright, bloody lines appeared on Keigo's nose, trailing after a velvety paw. Keigo screamed and dropped Yoruichi-sensei, who preformed a flawless landing.

At this point, the schoolyard was mostly empty. Good thing too, otherwise we would have been attracting a crowd.

And where the hell was Orihime?

"I have already said this once today, and I hate repeating myself," Yoruichi-sensei said, ignoring Yasutora's gaping and Mizuiro's quiet 'please let me dreaming this, please, _please'_. "So, listen carefully. I. Do. Not. Like. Being. Picked. Up. Or petted. Or cooed to. Or any of the other things you do to your pets, _because I am not your pet, __**understand?!"**_

_Reiatsu_ was flaring up at the end of that sentence, making black fur stick up and shoot little sparks. Yoruichi-sensei's eyes were glowing and I swear there was a black aura of death surrounding his fluffy little form.

There wasn't any answering on the part of the guys, but I'm pretty sure they got the message.

"Now then," Yoruichi-sensei said calmly. Yes, calmly. Like he hadn't been ready to perform a triple homicide with poor me being the sole witness to testify against him. "I suggest we take this to a better location. Also, we seem to be missing a girl. I was informed that one Inoue Orihime was also gifted with abilities?"

"Ye-Ye-Yes," Mizuiro stuttered. It might have been the fear of a 14-inch tall cat. Then again, it might have been because Keigo had passed out in Mizuiro's arms, and the smaller boy wasn't quite up to bearing Keigo's dead weight.

"All right then," Yoruichi-sensei said as he stepped away, heading towards the street. "You, big one. Carry the unconscious one and follow me. Tatsuki, go find Inoue-san and bring her to the construction site on Gyozo Avenue."

"E-E-E-Excuse m-m-me…." Mizuiro whimpered.

Yoruichi-sensei halted and turned around to give poor, frightened Kojima a golden look. "What?"

"…Can I go with Arisawa-san, please?" Mizuiro asked. Begged, really.

Yoruichi-sensei stared at him for a moment, and then huffed. "Do what you want. Just don't take all night."

Then he walked away, little black tail swinging through the air.

Yasutora looked at me, a very wide-eyed expression on his big face. "The cat just talked," Yasutora said.

"Yes, he does that," I said.

"The cat _talked_," Yasutora repeated.

What the heck was the problem? The Hollows were a lot weirder and scarier. …Well, they were weirder.

I sighed. "Yes Sado, the cat talked. His name is Yoruichi, and he is here to help us learn about our powers. Now, pick up Asano and follow the talking cat. Me, Orihime, an' Kojima will be right behind you, just as soon as we find her."

Yasutora looked ready to cry. "But the cat _talked_."

I yanked Keigo out of Mizuiro's arms, threw him at Yasutora, and then shoved the giant in the direction Yoruichi-sensei was moving. Snagging Mizuiro's shirt collar with my left hand, I dragged us both after the vague feeling of Orihimeness that was coming from the general direction of the Kurosaki clinic's area.

* * *

My super Orihime senses (combined with the flood of _reiatsu_ that is Kurosaki Ichigo. Once you know what to look for, the guy stands out like a freaking spotlight) led Mizuiro and myself to a flight of steps just in time to see Orihime watching Ichigo run off with a forlorn expression in her eyes. 

Ah, young love.

It would have been so much more gushy were it not Ichigo who Orihime was fixated on. That union would have spawned orange-headed terrors that would require Karakura to put padding on every sharp corner and college level questions on every junior high exit exam. Big breasted, freakishly tall, karate girls. Clumsy, naïve boys who could cook stew that would kill off a herd of elephants. They would all be stunningly gorgeous and, using their cherub good looks for cover, they would slowly take over Karakura with a horde of giant robots manufactured by their insane doctor of a grandfather. The rest of the world would soon follow.

…. I'm spending too much time around Orihime-chan. Her imagination is invading my own.

Orihime must have sensed us or heard us, because she turned around to look at Mizuiro and me at the top of the stairs.

"Tatsuki-chan? Kojima-kun?"

"Hey, Orihime. Come on, we've got somewhere to be," I called.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

I grinned.

* * *

I had warned Orihime to not pick up, pet, or touch Yoruichi-sensei in any way, but I was still nervous about introducing her to him. Orihime likes to cuddle stuff. If she picked up Yoruichi-sensei and he scratched her, I was going to do something. Turn him into a pair of gloves or something, fuck his claws. _No one_, be they human or otherwise, hurts Orihime-chan while I am around and lives. Yoruichi-sensei would suffer. _SUFFER!_

We arrived at the construction site and found Yasutora trying (unsuccessfully) to wake Keigo up from his heart attack induced stupor. Yoruichi-sensei was curled up on a pile of steel beams.

He didn't immediately start chatting it up with us, so Orihime didn't start squealing over how cool a talking cat was. Mizuiro edged away from sleeping feline. I guess he remembered what happened to Keigo.

As for Keigo, his eyes were out of focus and his head was cradled in Yasutora's lap. The big guy was poking him in the head, which didn't have any effect.

God help the male half of the human race, but I knew what would get him up.

"Orihime, why are you taking off your shirt? It isn't that hot yet," I drawled right next to Keigo.

Orihime turned around to look at me, confusion on her face. "Tatsuki-chan, I'm not-"

"INOUE-SAN!"

Yep, Keigo was back.

The drama queen threw himself at Orihime's feet, weeping. "Do not reveal your glorious form to the common masses! They are unworthy! If necessary, I, Asano Keigo, shall-"

"-Shut the fuck up, unless you, Asano Keigo, want to have one of those steel beams smashed flat across your head," I growled.

Until that moment, I don't think he knew that anyone other than Orihime and himself was around. Then I spoke, and he turned around _really_ slow with a 'trying very hard not to scream like a terrified lemming' face.

I really need to start carrying around a camera.

"A-A-A-A-Aria-s-sawa-san, h-h-h-ow ni-i-i-ce o-o-of you…." Keigo trailed off into whimpers at his immanent doom.

His doom was a lot less immanent, since I had better things to worry about than him taking a peek at Orihime's boobs.

…. Wow, never thought I'd say that….

"Now, that you're all here, allow me to – " Yoruichi-sensei was cut off by Orihime's frantic giggle of delight and Keigo's howl of terror.

"_Unbelievable!_ Tatsuki-chan told me you were a talking cat, but I never really thought that – "

" – demon beast, going to kill us all, run Inoue-san, RUN – "

" – what is it like? Are you an alien or an experiment or a reborn god cast down from heaven because of forbidden love or a robot in disguise or – "

" – golden eyes from hell and _the claws, the __**claws **_they're still stinging, and it is GOING TO EAT US ALL!"

"ENOUGH!"

You know, for such a tiny ball of fur and bones, Yoruichi-sensei can be _veeeeeery_ loud.

The aura of Doom™ was back full force and I took a step back.

"I. Am. Yoruichi. _Nothing else!_ Understood?"

There was a universal cry of 'yes!' followed by a much more silent universal cry of 'please don't kill us all.'

"Now then," Yoruichi-sensei said calmly (is he bipolar?). "There are a few things I need to say before anything else. First of all, my name is Shihouin Yoruichi and, if you are all willing, you will be getting to know me better in the coming days."

Keigo bravely stifled his tears.

"Urahara Kisuke, the man who spoke to you all about the recent events that have been occurring in your town, has asked me to instruct you all in the use of your powers. Just so you know, whether or not you decide to actively use these abilities, you should, at the very least, learn to keep them under control. Given that you all managed to destroy or evade Hollows, I imagine it could get quite awkward if they accidentally generated, say, in the middle of your classroom.

"That is what I am here to do. There is also another reason I am here to train you all, but whether or not you choose to follow me is up to you. As I am sure you've noticed by now, Kuchiki Rukia has vanished. This is because she was arrested and taken back to the Soul Society, the home of the _Shinigami_, last night. She will be executed for giving her powers to Kurosaki Ichigo and remaining in the human world for longer than the time allotted to her."

Beside me, Orihime gasped. I could see Mizuiro and Keigo stiffen up. Even Yasutora looked freaked.

"What each of you needs to decide in the next sixteen days is whether or not you will be accompanying Ichigo and myself to rescue her. I will not lie. We could use every bit of help we can get, but do not feel obligated to join us if your heart is not in it. That would only drag us down."

With that inspirational speech, Yoruichi-sensei sat back to look us over.

I'd tell you how he felt, but I'm not good at reading emotions off of a cat.

"I'm going," Yasutora said. Good old Yasutora!

"Y-Yoruichi-san," Orihime said. "This is… this is very sudden and I don't – "

"Like I said," Yoruichi-sensei interrupted smoothly. "I won't force you to go. You still have sixteen days to decide. I promise I won't bring up the Soul Society again unless one of you asks me to. Right now, I just to know if you all want to learn to control your powers."

And a show of hands says:

Me (duh).

Yasutora (hooray).

Mizuiro (kind of necessary).

And after a few moments of hesitation, Orihime and Keigo.

'_Note to self – figure out what his power is.'_

Yoruichi-sensei gave one long, slow, kitty-cat blink. "All right then. There is an abandoned factory on Kikumura road, three blocks south of here. I assume you all know where it is? Good. Meet me there tomorrow at nine o'clock and we will begin."

Gotta love a cat who thinks ahead.

"That's all for right now," Yoruichi-sensei said. He hopped off the beams and started trotting away to who knows where. "I'll see you all tomorrow then. Get plenty of rest, because you'll need it."

And oh fuck, if that wasn't the understatement of the century….

* * *

**Day 1**

* * *

Alarm shrieking next to my ear, I woke up at 8:00 A.M. on a Saturday. 

There should have been a law against that.

I snuggled deeper under my blankets for a few minutes, then belatedly realized, '_oh yeah. Have to go learn about my superpowers and save Rukia. Wheeeee…….'_

I dropped out of my bed, crawled along the floor until I banged my head into my dresser, then stood up and got dressed. I pulled on a loose t-shirt that I didn't hold any special feelings for and some bike shorts. Whatever else I knew, I could guess that this wasn't going to be a relaxing day for me. If my clothes got messed up, I didn't want it to be anything my parents would notice.

I yanked on socks and my old running shoes, and then snatched some onigiri and a water bottle from the fridge. My parents were still asleep, so I made sure to lock the door behind me quietly as I took off for the factory.

I could already feel Orihime and Mizuiro moving around. Far away was Keigo's aura. Yasutora wasn't moving at all. I guess he liked to sleep in as much as he could.

Karakura in the early morning is really kind of quiet. Traffic doesn't pick up until around ten o'clock, so only a few cars passed me. Shops that sold food were already open and handing out breakfast to anyone who could pay for it. The shops that sold things other than perishables were just starting to wake up. Far away, I could hear the railway blaring its horn as it sped around.

I arrived at the rusting building a while later and found Yoruichi-sensei waiting for us all in the doorway of the half-rotted building. He gave me a nod of acknowledgement and then settled back down to wait for the others. With nothing else to do and too much energy to just sit around, I started going through a few of my more advanced kata to pass the time. It was in the middle of those that I remembered I had signed up to go to the National Competition in a week. Now I had the joyous task of finding an excuse that would get me out of it, without making me out to be a complete wuss and liar to sensei.

Fuck, and I'd _really_ wanted to go this year.

'_Rukia, you had damn well better appreciate this.'_

"Left foot," Yoruichi-sensei suddenly interrupted my inner moping.

I stumbled and turned back to look at him. "What?"

"When you turn, you need to keep your left foot straight," Yoruichi-sensei said. "I can see it twisting slightly."

"Uh, right. Thanks."

Soon after that, I finally felt Yasutora start moving. Orihime came next after me, then Mizuiro. Yasutora arrived a few minutes before Keigo, who arrived with just one minute to spare for Yoruichi-sensei's nine o'clock deadline.

"So nice of you to join us," Yoruichi-sensei drawled at him.

Keigo paled.

"However, since you were not actually late, I will skip any actual punishment. Now then, all of you follow me."

We marched into the building behind Yoruichi-sensei like good little ducklings and found ourselves in a big lobby type room. Through there, we arrived in a big hall with several flights of stairs attached to the walls and leading to catwalks that overlooked huge vats and assembly lines that hadn't been in use for at least thirty years. Someone (I suspect a short, fluffy, black someone, though how he did it without fingers, I do not know) had painted targets on the wall.

"Now then," Yoruichi-sensei said, sitting on the railing of one of the stair flights. "Let's start by finding out what we have to work with. I'd like each of you to explain as best you can what happened when you were attacked by Hollows."

"It was like bomb exploded in my head," Mizuiro said, startling all of us a little. "All of a sudden I could hear and feel and _know_ things that I had… _should_ have had no way of knowing. It was like a thousand different people were all screaming for my attention all at once and I couldn't make them be quiet. Those were just people, though. The Hollow…"

Mizuiro got a look in his eyes. He wasn't staring at anything in the present anymore.

"…It was like looking under my bed and seeing something reach for me. I… I could _feel_ that it wanted to kill me. It wanted to eat me, and it didn't feel like it would be stopped. So… So _I_ didn't think it would be stopped, and I just knew I was going to die, and I got scared. I got so scared all the other voices in my head were kind of… pushed down, I guess. All that was left was the Hollow.

"I could feel it bearing down on me, in more ways then one, and I panicked and… I guess… I guess I just _hit_ it."

"You… _hit_ a Hollow?" Yoruichi-sensei's voice was more than a little incredulous.

Mizuiro shook his head, the _seki-seki_ diadem catching the light a little. "Not with my fists. It… I was so scared. I couldn't move my body, but my head was still telling me to move, to run away. When I felt the Hollow's mind crushing in on my own, I hit it with my mind to try to make it go away. I think that's what happened, anyway.

"It got kind of confusing after that. I wasn't myself anymore. I was Flat Edge, but I wasn't. I could still feel his hunger and my fear, but now _he_ was feeling _my_ fear in addition to his usual stuff. I wanted to eat him and he wanted to run from me, at the same time that he wanted to eat me and I wanted to run from him. We were both stuck together and we couldn't tell which was which. Like I said, it gets confusing. I think that's what saved me long enough for help to come. Neither of us was really sure what to do.

"I don't know how long I was stuck to him like that, but a while later both of us saw Tessai-san come and he killed Flat Edge. I felt his attack like it was hitting me. The pain shook me loose from Flat Edge and knocked me out. That's all I remember Yoruichi-san. Ever since then I have been hearing everyone's thoughts, and the only thing that made it stop was Urahara-san's _seki-seki_ rock," Mizuiro said, finishing up his story.

There was a silence after that. I think everyone was a little weirded out by the fact that Mizuiro had shared headspace with a Hollow long enough to get its name.

"Interesting," Yoruichi-sensei finally said. "Have you had any of this Flat Edge's urges since then?"

"No," Mizuiro shook his head again. "I didn't bring anything out of its head with me."

Ah, so he was back to calling the Hollow 'it', huh?

"Well, good," Yoruichi-sensei said. "At least I shouldn't have to worry about you growing a mask. Next."

"Me, me, me!" Orihime called out happily. I wonder how much sugar… No, what am I saying? Orihime was always happy, all the time.

"A volunteer? All right Inoue, have at it."

"Right!" Orihime chirped. "Tatsuki-chan, Chizuru-chan, and I were staying after school to help clean up some broken glass that knocked out of the windows. We don't know who did that, but they must have been in a _real_ bad mood, because it was all smashed up into tiny little edges, like miniature diamonds and I think they would have looked super pretty glued onto a picture frame –"

"'hime-chan," I interrupted. "The Hollow attack?"

"Oh, right! Well, I kind of got the feeling that something was looking at me and not in a nice way, either. So, I looked up and there was this," Orihime spread her arms for dramatic effect, "_huge_ octopus thing with a skull face on the roof of the building next door!

"I got really scared then," Orihime admitted, looking down at the ground. I don't know why, it wasn't like there was anything to be ashamed of. I'd been ready to piss myself, and likely would have, if I hadn't had helping her and Chizuru to distract me from the fact that I'd been fighting a fucking calamari monstrosity.

"Chizuru-chan got hit with these green things that made her do things that she didn't want to do. A bunch of other people were being controlled too. They were starting to circle around Chizuru-chan and I, and that's when Tatsuki-chan came!"

Now Orihime was smiling and jabbing her fists through the air like a boxer. "She did a right and a left and kick and a punch! And then all the people who were being controlled got put down and the Hollow thing went after Tatsuki-chan. When Tatsuki-chan got hit with those green bullets, she got put under the Hollow's control, too."

I remembered that.

Impacts against my body like a rock being shot out of a cannon. I _hurt_. Orihime was running for me, crying, and screaming… something. Dunno. Then I blacked out and –

_body won't move what's wrong hard to think hard to see _

_monster where? _

_got hit where's the pain why_

_can't_

_i_

_move_

_girls others where are they chizuru __**orihime **_

_not me not me in my body _

_orange shiny long _

_hair _

'_**hime? **_

_on the ground why?_

_knuckles sting her curled around her stomach my fault __**did I hit - ?!**_

_she's getting up _

- don't get up -

_why is she doing that she's hurt why why why why why why why why why why why why why why why_

- stay down -

_orihime hugging me _

- stay _down_ damn it! -

_water shining in her eyes that which should not be __**she should never have to cry I PROMISED! **_

_"Ori…hime…."_

- i'm not worth this -

"_Tatsuki-chan," she said. _

- don't get hurt for me -

_you bitch, you skull faced bitch, __**don't.**__**touch.**__**her.**__ don't touch either of them_

"_This time, I'll protect you!"_

- don't you _dare_ get hurt because of me -

- …and then it got kind of fuzzy.

"When Tatsuki-chan fell down, that was when the Shun Shun Rikka came to me," Orihime said. So, the fairy circus troupe had a name then, huh?

"The Hollow was attacking again, so they told me how to use their powers. I had Hinagiku, Baigon, and Lily form the Sacred Tri-Link Shield to block the seed bullets that the Hollow fired at me. Then I had Shun'ō and Ayame fix Tatsuki-chan with the Sacred Twin Return Shield. When she was better, Tsubaki said it was his turn and I aimed him at the Hollow, then used the Sacred Solitary Cutting Shield. But…"

Orihime slowed down her words again. "I guess I must have passed out from using up all that energy, because I don't remember anything after that until I woke up in Urahara-san's store with the others."

"Er, fascinating," Yoruichi-sensei said. I guess Orihime's perkiness had gotten to him. Good to know something could.

Yoruichi-sensei shook himself, sending a few black hairs flying into the air, and looked at Yasutora. "You, go."

"I was walking with my friends, and I got attacked. I ran away so no one else would get hurt. I couldn't see the Hollow, just something like a heat wave. I ran into a playground and found Ichigo's little sister, Karin. She could see it and she helped me fight it. I hit the Hollow and my arm changed. The Hollow died, I passed out, and I guess that's when Urahara-san found me," Yasutora said in one long, slow, laconic speech.

"Your arm changed how?" Yoruichi-sensei pressed.

"It got bigger, harder. It felt like I could punch through anything," Yasutora answered.

'_Can't you already do that?'_

"All right, tardy boy," Yoruichi-sensei gave Keigo his full attention. Keigo whimpered. "You're up."

'_I get to find out what Keigo's powers are, I get to find out what Keigo's powers are,'_ I sang in my head.

"Well, I was watching pre… I was walking around Chuuou Park," Keigo said, starting his sentence over when he was halfway through it. I'd bet my left hand that the 'pre' was going to be a 'pretty', closely followed by 'girls'.

"And I was leaving behind some girls who had invited me to sunbathe with them."

Unlikely.

"Their boyfriends wrongfully felt the need to hasten my departure."

Far more likely.

"And all of a sudden, I get this nasty chill down my spine. I turn around and there's this big dog looking thing with a skull mask on and he's looking at me like I'm lunch."

"So what'd you do?" I asked.

"Well, there were women nearby! How could I do anything with those lovely flowers of femininity nearby, at risk from the conflict?! So, I bravely got its attention and led the beast away as fast as I could to better get rid of it!"

"Meaning you screamed and ran away," Mizuiro translated.

"I did _not_," Keigo said, looking highly affronted. Drama queen.

"Anyway, I could hear the monster chasing after me and I started getting scared. I wanted to get away, I wanted to get away _right then_, and I… did."

"Pardon?" Yoruichi-sensei asked, his black tail curling.

"Um… It was kind of like the pins and needles feeling you get when your arms or legs fall asleep, only a bit worse. The world kind of turned all gray and quiet. I looked back and the monster was about to eat me, except when I stumbled and it should have bitten me in half, its teeth just passed right through me.

"I got back up and started running again. It wasn't until I'd gotten away that I realized that the monster had stopped chasing me after it tried to bite me. I was still stuck in that gray world. It was like the universe had lost all its vitality."

So, Keigo knew dictionary words after all.

"People were just walking right past me. I walked in front of them and shouted, but they didn't see me or hear me. I tried grabbing onto them, but my hands just passed right through their bodies and made that staticy feeling worse until I pulled out of them. I didn't know what was happening and I was freaking out too much to really notice how tired I was becoming until I fell down in front of comic shop near the park. The world got colorful and loud again, and I guess that's when that shop owner found me. I remember being helped up, and that is it."

Yoruichi-sensei arched an eyebrow, and let me tell you it looks DAMN weird seeing a cat do that.

He pulls it off much better than any human I've ever known. It must be the whiskers.

"You were passing straight through people? As in, you were not tangible?"

Keigo blinked.

'_Okay, he doesn't know __**that **__many dictionary words.' _

Yoruichi-sensei sighed. "I mean, you couldn't not make physical contact with them?"

"Oh! Yeah, that's right."

"But you weren't falling through the ground, or walking through trees?"

Keigo blinked. "Come to think of it, no. I actually leaned up against one to rest after I got away from the Hollow thing and it felt normal enough."

Yoruichi-sensei gave a 'Hm', which likely meant _this has some sort of significance to me, but I think I'll let you poor juveniles worry about it before I tell anything that would deprive me of the pleasure of seeing you squirm. _

"All right, last one up," Yoruichi-sensei said, flicking a dainty black paw at me.

"Not much to say," I shrugged. "I was helping Orihime and Chizuru sweep up the glass, like you've already heard. Orihime saw the Hollow and started herding us out of the area. I hadn't seen it yet, so I went to change back into my school uniform and when I came out, there was this zombie mob going after Orihime and Chizuru. I beat them up and then I tried to take out the Hollow itself, which didn't end too well."

'_And I'm going to make sure that __**never**__ happens again. E-V-E-R.' _

"I got blasted with some seed bullet things and blacked out. After Orihime healed me, I woke up in time to see her fire off that Sacred Solitary fairy guy – "

"Tsubaki," Orihime whispered helpfully.

" – Tsubaki. I don't know whether Orihime's Shun Shun Rikka did it, or it happened on its own, but all of a sudden I could feel _reiatsu_, which I couldn't do before. I knew Orihime's attack wasn't going to be enough to kill the Hollow, and then the Hollow went after Orihime. So, I got both of us out of the way.

"What I meant to do was grab Orihime and shove her out of the way, hopefully while jumping clear myself. But instead I carried us both from the middle of the courtyard all the way over to the next classroom wall and bashed into it."

Moving so fast and effortlessly, I hadn't even needed to think about it. There had been lightning in my veins, energy that snapped and popped if I did not _move_ and _run_ and _use it now_.

"I dropped Orihime down and went back to fight the Hollow again. I felt like I could beat it that time. I felt… lighter. Less constrained. There was this metal stuff covering my skin, like armor, I think. The Hollow went after me and everything just slowed _waaaay_ down. The bullets it was firing were practically standing still compared to how I was moving.

"And that's it. I hit it a few times, it died, the metal stuff went away, and I passed out in the rocks that had been one of the schools concrete walls."

And that was the end of Sharing Time.

And out of the whole thing, the most dominant feeling of all in my heart was that of disappointment.

Asano Keigo had managed to irritate me once again. All that mystery about his abilities, and what do I get? No epic battle, no cool awakening of his abilities, not even a decent laugh out of the whole thing. Just a guy who would have discovered his ability to hide anyway, even if he hadn't been chased by a Hollow. I bet _anything_ that fear of those sunbathers' boyfriends would have been enough to kick Keigo's powers awake.

'_Asano, you dramatic ass.'_

"Well," Yoruichi-sensei said. "I can see that I have a bit of diversity to work with, which isn't necessarily a bad thing."

'_Necessarily?'_

Yoruichi-sensei went for Mizuiro first. "You need my help the most right now. With the others, they simply awakened their abilities and then closed them off from sheer exhaustion once the danger was over. For some reason, however, yours have become permanently active. I assume you have taken off the _seki-seki_ diadem at some point?"

Mizuiro grimaced. "Yes, when I shower. Then all the feelings and voices come back. It feels like I'm being hit in the skull with a shovel. I can't get to sleep without this around my head." Mizuiro tapped his headgear.

Yoruichi-sensei nodded. "All right then, listen up. I'm going to explain to you what these powers are and how you can call them out again, or," he looked at Mizuiro again, "in your case, turn them off."

'_Lecture time, ugh.'_

"The abilities of _Shinigami_, Hollows, and yourselves are all built around _reiatsu_. The more you have, the stronger you are. A _Shinigami_'s most standard expression of that power is in their _zanpakutou_, their Soul Slayer. This is the sword they use to perform _konsō_ and send souls to the next world, as well as purify Hollows. Each _zanpakutou_ is an extension of its human wielder and has an individual spirit. A _zanpakutou_ also has unique powers. With few exceptions, a _zanpakutou_ in its natural state looks like an ordinary sword. It is only after activating _shikai_, the initial release of power, that the true abilities of the _Shinigami_, and by extension the _zanpakutou_, will be revealed."

Yoruichi-sensei gave us a second to let that sink in, and then he plowed on. "Kurosaki Ichigo's enormous amount of _reiatsu_ affected you all, and increased your own powers by associating with him. Were you all students in the _Shinigami _Academy, your abilities would, I bet my last cent, have come out as _zanpakutou_, instead of what they did two days ago. But this is not the case.

"What you need to realize is that none of you are _Shinigami_. With Kuchiki's assistance, Ichigo was able to leave his physical body and become one, but none of you can do that. Your bodies hindered the process that the Hollow attack began and it shows in how your powers manifested. With the sole exception of Inoue, you all achieved a bastard form of _shikai._"

"What's different about her?" Keigo asked.

Yoruichi-sensei scuffed a paw. "I don't know how, but she achieved total contact with her inner spirit. Or spirits, as it was. One should only be capable of a true _shikai_ after learning the name of your _zanpakutou_, but she managed to fully manifest her Shun Shun Rikka and only learned their names after the fact. Also, they gained a physical form in her hairpins. As a human, she should not have been able to do that. Even more puzzling is the fact that she managed to bring them all out into the physical world as themselves."

"Um… what?" I asked.

"_Shikai _upgrades a _zanpakutou's _abilities, but the spirit of the Soul Slayer remains inside the individual. After _shikai_, the initial release, there is another step in _bankai_, final release. This is the final and much more powerful expression of ability in a _zanpakutou_, and it involves summoning the spirit of the Soul Slayer to your plane of existence to unleash its full power. What Inoue did was something only someone who had achieved _bankai_, or who was very close to it, should have been able to do.

"The four of you are unusual because humans rarely manifest spiritual abilities beyond seeing and hearing spirits, but at least I can understand how your abilities work. Inoue, on the other hand, is something completely new."

"Is this going to be a problem Yoruichi-san?" Orihime asked nervously.

Yoruichi-sensei gave a reassuring (as much as a cat can) look. "No, I doubt that. We'll just need to be a bit more careful until we figure out what you're really capable of."

Orihime untensed.

"Yoruichi-san, what about me?" Mizuiro piped up. "You've been telling us about how _Shinigami_ activate their powers, but not how they turn them off."

"True," Yoruichi-sensei acknowledged. "I think your real problem is control over your _reiatsu_. You said you haven't been feeling tired, and we have the _seki-seki_ to thank for that. It works by blocking off _reiatsu_. I believe your powers activate whenever there is another presence near enough to be felt, and so keeping those auras from interfering with your own locks that telepathy of yours away. If you learn to suppress your _reiatsu_ naturally, I think you will have privacy in your mind again."

And I think a private chorus of angels started singing '_Hallelujah_' inside Mizuiro's head.

"All right, any questions?"

'_Oh, only about a million.'_

"Okay, let's get started. The first order of business is learning how to call on your powers at will…."

**

* * *

**

2 Hours Later….

* * *

I wanted a new life. Seriously. 

Keigo, Orihime, and Yasutora were jumping up and down, shouting, growling, and generally being a huge distraction to Mizuiro and me. I was torn between shouting at them in my frustration and laughing at them in pure hilarity. They looked pretty darn ridiculous like that.

Mizuiro was sitting in a corner with his headgear on the floor beside him, trying to make his _reiatsu_ submit to his control and shut off the constant flow of chaos in his head. Judging by his twitching and muttering, it wasn't going too well.

Yoruichi-sensei was giving out corrections where he saw fit, which had zero effect on our progress.

Well, that's not completely true. Every now and then I'd feel one of their auras flare up a bit or shift for a second, but then it died down again. Argh.

And me?

Lacking any other idea of how to bring out a power that I was going to use for combat, I was going through every single kata I had ever done in my _life_, using one of the painted targets on the wall for my focus. I was imagining it was the Hollow from Wednesday and beating my knuckles bloody against the false image. I tried remembering how it felt to have that north wind vibe in my bones, but nothing happened. I didn't get that armor stuff, my space-time perception stayed the same, and I was getting some very sore hands.

Frustration, so very much.

Damn it, I was the last one in progress! Everyone had gotten at least some kind of flicker, except for me. Nope, dumb old Tatsuki can't do a thing! She just punches and kicks and punches and kicks and punches and kicks _and punches and kicks and punches and kicks and __**punches**__ and __**kicks**__ and __**punches**__ and __**kicks **__**and PUN**_--!!

_Crack!_

…And there went my right middle metacarpal.

Shit.

Tatsuki's Dragon Temper strikes again.

"Oh, Tatsuki-chan!"

I have Orihime senses. Is it really so odd to think that she might have Tatsuki senses? Maybe it is just arrogance on my part.

In half a second, I had Orihime cupping my hand and inspecting the broken bone with all the gentleness you can expect from her. It still hurt like fuck.

"Idiot," Yoruichi-sensei sniped. "If you are going to lose your temper and hit something, make sure it won't do more damage to yourself."

What could I say? The cat had a point.

Yoruichi-sensei sighed. "This is hopeless. At this rate, I'll never be able to send any of you into the Soul Society."

"What? Come on…." Orihime responded. I agreed with her. We'd only been at this for a few hours!

Yoruichi-sensei stood up from where he had been sitting on a stack of wood. "Don't 'Come on' me. If you don't gain the ability to summon your powers at will, then even if you do go to the Soul Society, you'll just die like a dog."

'_Thank you Mr. Optimism.'_

"It isn't difficult. Just remember the first time and follow that."

_'…WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE WERE DOING?!'_

I didn't say my thoughts out loud. I still had band-aids on my face from yesterday.

"That's easy to say, but… back then, I was just frantic," Orihime said.

"Same here," Keigo said.

"What were you frantic about?"

"What?" Orihime asked.

"When a person takes up arms, they are trying to protect something. It may be their own life, their status, their honor, someone they love, or something they believe in; be it good or bad, there is no difference in their desire to protect. Recall what it was you wanted to protect that day," Yoruichi-sensei explained.

That wasn't hard for me. She was holding onto my hand at the moment.

I met Orihime, really met her, when her hair was cut by those skanky bitches in 8th grade. I yelled at her to stop crying, and when that didn't work I sent all those bimbos in training to the dentist for dentures. I kept the bullies and, later on, the unwanted suitors away from her.

I hate seeing people cry, especially nice people, and _especially_ people who I like. I was supposed to keep Orihime from crying. It was that simple.

And I had –

_"This time, I'll protect you!"_

- Fucked up. Totally.

_'Skull. Faced. Bitch,'_ I though with venom. But she was dead now. Tatsuki – 1. Hollow Freak – 0.

I was interrupted from my thoughts by the sound of Yasutora gagging. I guess his image of what should be protected didn't agree with him.

Evidently Yoruichi-sensei agreed with me, because he hung his fluffy black head and said, "Looks like you've failed to remember it completely."

"What about you two?" He turned to Orihime and me.

"I know what I wanted protect," I growled through the throbbing pain in my hand. "I still do."

Orihime let go of my hand and closed her eyes, thinking deeply. "I… Back then, I was just frantically… _frantically_ trying to…."

'_Save my ass,'_ I filled in.

All of a sudden, I felt Orihime's _reiatsu_ ripple. Her hairpins sparkled, despite there being no light shining on them.

"It sparkled," Yasutora said.

Orihime smiled and raised a hand to cup her pins. "Really?!" She asked gleefully.

And then they exploded.

Seriously.

Her hairpins glowed gold and then shot apart. There were popping sounds, a little bit of smoke, and then half a dozen fairies were hovering around Orihime's head.

I could _feel_ Keigo's twitch.

"You guys!" Orihime greeted them cheerfully.

"You called?" Asked the one with the blonde ponytail. "When you're in need, don't hesitate to call on us."

She seemed friendly enough.

Tsubaki didn't seem to think so, and that was probably why he kicked her out of the way so he get at Orihime.

"Exactly where in this situation are our powers needed?!?!" Tsubaki demanded. He gestured all around the warehouse, somehow completely overlooking my throbbing hand. Ouchies.

"What did you do that for?!" Ponytail asked, holding on to her aggrieved back as best as she could.

"I-I-I'm sorry," Orihime apologized. "I was just remembering some things and I just – _ow_!"

Tsubaki, that little demon fairy, nailed Orihime right in the skull. This was worth noting, as most people can compare Orihime's head to a low-grade diamond. If Tsubaki knew this, he did not care.

"Don't friggin' call on us when you're not in a pinch, you stupid woman!"

_'To kill, or not to kill? That is the question! For by the irony of the Universe is the pest at hand part of the very person whom I am sworn to defend.'_

And then he started pulling on her hair and kicking her head.

_'It is to kill,'_ I decided.

The rest of the Shun Shun Rikka started hollering at Tsubaki to stop, to which he responded, "No way! She pisses me off!"

Orihime was running around the woodpile Yoruichi-sensei was sitting on, so I had to chase her around while screaming for Tsubaki to stop hurting her, lest I step on his four-inch tall form.

He called me an interfering dragon bitch, and told me what I could do with a dark closet and a broom handle.

That did it.

I jumped over the woodpile and Yoruichi-sensei, tackled Orihime to the ground, and swiped Tsubaki out of her hair.

Then I shook him.

_Hard._

And he_ bit_ me, the little parasite.

So I grabbed a nearby empty paint can, and set it upside down on the ground with him inside. Just to make sure he wouldn't knock it over, I sat on it. Yoruichi-sensei told Orihime that she just needed work on controlling her powers and then she'd be set. The day's first real practice session was everyone being introduced to the Shun Shun Rikka and watching Shun'ō and Ayame heal my busted hand, while Tsubaki hurled insults at the past eight generations of the Arisawa family from within the paint bucket under my butt.

I spent the rest of the day dredging up every single memory I could of the Hollow attack, pounding away at the wall of the factory, and having Orihime get her Sacred Twin Return Shield to patch up whatever I messed up. At the end of the day when we called it quits, I still didn't have one damn flicker of power to show for all my frustration.

When I crawled into bed after dinner with my parents, I was not a happy camper.

_'Stupid reiatsu,'_ was my parting thought to consciousness.

* * *

_Next time – Anger and fear are good motivators. Bad memories and Keigo getting control before you are better ones._

_I had meant for Tatsuki to get her powers under control in this chapter, but I cut it short. It was already more than twenty pages._


	6. Page 6

**Bleach and all of the things it incorporates are not mine. THEY ARE NOT MINE! So, nobody sue me.**

* * *

This class is Pain 101 and your teacher is Casey Jones! – _Casey Jones, __Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Movie_

* * *

**Day 2**

* * *

Alarm. 

Alarm ringing.

Alarm must die.

_Crunch._

Alarm is dead.

Bliss.

…..Wait.

'_I'm supposed to be getting out of bed now.'_

Yoruichi-sensei and his evil 9 A.M. deadline.

My second morning of kitty boot camp. Dragging my poor, exhausted form out of bed, I got dressed, washed my face, and headed out the door while my parents were still encased in their warm soft beds. Lucky them.

There was a bakery a few blocks down from my home, so I snatched a Danish to eat on the go. Apple Danish, yum. Not as good as apple pie, but it set my morning off to a good start.

Once again, I was the first person to arrive. Yoruichi-sensei was curled up in a ball in front of the factory door and, to all appearances, dead to the world. While I stood a few feet away from him, weighing the pros and cons of throwing a pebble at his head to wake him up (hey, if I have to get up early, why should he sleep in?), Yoruichi-sensei suddenly opened his eyes and gave me A Look.

"Well?" Yoruichi-sensei drawled. "Am I that fascinating to stare at? Of course, I realize that my fur is of a sheen rarely found in common housecats and my pads are as soft as velvet and my nose is adorable, but really, one shouldn't just blatantly stare – "

"Yoruichi-sensei," I interrupted. "I was just wondering whether I should wake you up or not."

"I was not asleep," Yoruichi-sensei corrected me. "But for future reference, if you ever interrupt my nap time, I'll _leave my mark on you_."

In response, the still healing cuts on my face twinged. Orihime hadn't gotten around to fixing them yesterday.

"Yes sir," I muttered.

And… was Yoruichi-sensei _laughing?!_

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing, nothing," Yoruichi-sensei chuckled. Liar! "Just start your warm ups and wait for the others."

Evil fur ball.

Kata again. Swing, kick, block, turn, wash, rinse, and repeat. Considering I was going to storm the home of the _Shinigami_ (which was so going to make my 'stupidest things I have ever done' list), it was good for me to practice my martial arts. I didn't have a cool _zanpakutou_ like Ichigo did. My bastard version of _shikai_, to quote Yoruichi-sensei from the day before, gave me more speed and power, but still left me with nothing more than my hands and feet. Lucky for me, I knew exactly what to do with those to make someone go down crying.

This time Yasutora was first, with Mizuiro and Orihime after him. Keigo was a few minutes earlier than last time, but he still showed up near nine O'clock.

Inside we trooped, back to the old smelting room that had suffered through our attempts at power raising the day before. That one target on the wall had a few of my bloodstains on it from when I split my knuckles.

Yoruichi-sensei jumped up onto his pile of wood and sat down facing us.

"Most of you managed to progress somewhat in the first session we had. Inoue, I suggest you keep summoning the Shun Shun Rikka until you are comfortable doing it. Also, work on controlling that wild one. If he is your only offensive option, you will need a better handle on him.

"Asano, Sado, you both still need to call on your powers at will. The same goes for you, Arisawa.

"Kojima, you made some progress in repressing your _reiatsu_. Keep doing that until it feels natural to have it shoved down, and then we'll see what we can do about using it against others."

And we were off again!

…What, you think I have something to say about all? I don't. It was just like yesterday. Orihime practiced with the Shun Shun Rikka, the guys got their _reiatsu_ to occasionally spike or drop, and I got the barest flicker of power.

Well, there was one incident worth mentioning. That barest flicker of power I mentioned? It came when I reacted to Tsubaki doing an aerial charge right at my face upon being set loose by Orihime. Time didn't slow down like it had the last time, but I was pretty sure my reflexes weren't usually that fast. I grabbed him out of the air again and tossed him at the rest of the fairies. Baigon and Hinagiku kept him from trying it again. Sore loser.

Things continued like that for a few hours (yeah, I broke a few more bones in my hands and feet. Shut up about it) until Mizuiro let out this yelp around noon. I was in the middle of a high kick and, due to my kick ass karate skills, did _not_ spaz and break my ankle.

"What is it?" Yoruichi-sensei asked.

"I – I feel someone. Out there," Mizuiro gestured at the walls of our practice area. "They're putting off a lot of energy."

Oh? Was it Ichigo?

"Ah, that one. I was wondering when one of you would notice him," Yoruichi-sensei replied.

"Who is it?" Yasutora asked.

"Another one like you – someone young and full of ability."

"Great. Who is it?" I asked.

Yoruichi-sensei flashed me an annoyed look. "I believe his name is Ishida Uryuu. He is one of the very few Quincy left. Since I know you're going to ask, a Quincy is a human who is able to manipulate spiritual energy particles to form weapons, most often a bow and arrows. Using this method, they can combat hollows."

…. Well, that was unexpected.

The last time I'd given that geek any thought was when his name showed up as the top student at Karakura high school. I knew he was in the handy crafts club with Orihime, but… that was it.

And now this guy could fight hollows?

I stretched… well, stretched isn't the right word. Come to think of it, I don't really know any word that does fit, so let's just stick with stretch. I stretched my senses out as far as I could and felt… flickers. Like someone was breathing on me. I couldn't get anything more than that, and so I pulled back.

It was interesting to see how much further Mizuiro could sense energy than the others or me. His focus had been on his own power the whole time, trying to cram it down to nothing, and in the split second he had let up on it, still not allowing even half of his real abilities to come out, he had sensed Ishida clearly enough to scare the hell out of himself. I guess it was like opening your eyes in a dark room to see a bright light only a little way away.

"Oh? None of you believe me?" Yoruichi-sensei asked.

"I do," Mizuiro said. "I'm not trying to hear his thoughts, but the energy does seem rather familiar."

"But it is ISHIDA! The king of all dorks! The number one nerd! The guy _sews_!" Keigo yelled. "How can HE have powers?!"

"Would you like to see for yourself?" Yoruichi-sensei offered.

* * *

He did. 

We all did.

So, Yoruichi-sensei cut us a break and we all headed out of Karakura and into the woods beyond, following Ishida's aura. It got easier to feel him the farther we went. Initially, we all had to follow Yoruichi-sensei, except for Mizuiro, but soon we all knew right where to go.

Uryuu was in a clearing with a waterfall and some rocks. A tent and a campfire ring lay off to the side. He had spent the night there, and it looked like he was not leaving any time soon. What really got our attention though was the blue energy bow he was firing over and over again.

_Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew! _

_Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew!_

_Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew!_

_Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew!_

_Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew!_

The arrows blasted off into the sky and disappeared. I noticed a glove Uryuu had on his right hand. Maybe it was a wrist guard?

Yoruichi-sensei was right. Ishida Uryuu, the geek of all geeks, had spiritual powers.

What was the world coming to?

"Ishida-kun, hello!" Orihime called as she scrambled over the rocks in her path. That girl likes everyone, seriously.

"Inoue-san? What are you… what are _all_ of you doing here? How did you find this place?" Uryuu asked as we all hopped and climbed over the big, jagged, _very freaking sharp_ rocks that lined his training space.

"Kojima-kun felt your aura when we were practicing and Yoruichi-san led us here," Orihime explained.

"Yoruichi?" Uryuu said curiously.

'_All right Mr. Quincy, let's see how you handle this.'_

"What were you practicing for, Ishida-kun?" Orihime asked.

"Uh, well…." Uryuu didn't really seem like he wanted to answer that. Then his eyes snapped up at all of us and he got kind of worried.

"Hey, how did you all know I was practicing?" Uryuu asked.

"Like Inoue said, Kojima felt it during his meditation," Yoruichi-sensei said.

Total silence.

"Who said that?!" Uryuu finally shouted, looking this and that.

'_Hehehehehe.'_

"What are you looking at? I'm here, over here." Yoruichi-sensei waved a paw for attention, which he got. Uryuu _stared_, the way only a person confronted with a talking cat can stare.

"I'm Yoruichi," sensei introduced.

Freak out time, commence!

"**Augh! Augh!** That cat is…! That _**cat**_ is…!" Uryuu couldn't seem to finish his sentences, poor boy.

"What?" Yoruichi-sensei said, with a hint of disgust. "Just because a cat is speaking, there's no reason to lose it, boy."

"That's right, Ishida-kun. It's no big deal," Orihime insisted. I think I was starting to understand why the Shun Shun Rikka looked like fairies.

"Actually…." Yasutora spoke up from the back. "It's enough of a shock to give someone minor emotional trauma."

"The scratching," Keigo shuddered. "The _scratching_."

"I won't tell you about the vibes I get from Yoruichi-san's head," Mizuiro whispered. "Just… _no."_

Wimps, the lot of them.

"Men are such utterly unadaptable creatures, aren't they?" Yoruichi-sensei said sadly.

'_Yep, you said it. …Wait, rewind that. Analyze.' _

Uryuu calmed down at that. Kind of.

"Um, excuse me," Uryuu said, fiddling with his glasses. "Now, why are you all here?"

So, the whole story got told again. What, you thought I was going to waste time repeating it? No way.

"Kurosaki is going to the Soul Society?!" Uryuu asked, unbelieving.

"Yeah, he's gonna try to save Kuchiki," I said.

"I see," Uryuu said. "Well, best of luck to him."

"Kuchiki-san's life is danger, you know!" Orihime said. "Don't you want to help out, even a little?"

"Unfortunately, it has nothing to do with me," Uryuu replied. Frigid little priss. He could at least have acted outraged.

"As a Quincy," Uryuu said, in a voice that I knew would lead to a speech. "I cannot forgive myself for losing to _Shinigami_. **That** is why I am here, why I am training. I don't care about Kuchiki-san."

God, I wanted to hit him.

"You realize," I said, "that if you go to the Soul Society, you'll have a really good chance of fighting some _Shinigami_ and maybe getting back for losing to them before?"

I had absolutely no freaking clue what he was talking about, but whatever might help, you know?

Uryuu gave me this 'holier than thou' expression. "I can find my opponents myself, thank you."

Well, I tried.

There was this really uncomfortable silence that Orihime finally broke.

"I see," Orihime said, standing up from her rock seat. "I guess you're working hard at doing your own thing. I guess… I'm going to consider it again."

'_Hm?'_

"It's certainly true that something is changing in me… and I am scared, kind of, but I also know I want to find out what it is."

So….

Ishida had changed Orihime's mind about going to the Soul Society. How the hell did that happen? At that moment, I wasn't sure whether I wanted to hug him or break his neck.

"Well, I guess we should be leaving now," Orihime said.

"Yes, I have put off this exercise long enough," Uryuu said, looking down at the blue and white glove he wore.

"Good-bye, Ishida-kun."

And away we went.

* * *

"So, you have decided?" 

It was Yoruichi-sensei who said it, as we walked along the road leading back to Karakura. I knew who he was talking to.

"Yes," Orihime said. "Yesterday, I just wanted to know about the Shun Shun Rikka. I didn't really know if I felt strong enough to help Kurosaki-kun. But…"

Orihime got that spaced out look on her face. You know the one I mean.

"…Sado-kun and Tatsuki-chan are both going to help Kurosaki-kun no matter what. They can do things that I can't… but at the same time, I can do things that they can't. Even if I'm not strong enough right now, I can still get stronger while there's a chance. So, I'm going to. And I will help Kurosaki-kun and Kuchiki-san."

Overall, I'd say it was inspirational day.

Too bad I didn't get any more progress in. Not a bit.

Damn it.

* * *

**Day 3**

* * *

I had stopped to buy a new alarm clock the night before, so I woke up at what was becoming my new usual time on my first Monday off for summer break. 

My mom was up before me this time. She gets out of bed the same time as dad does, and he was already gone when I got downstairs. Technically, he only works about nine hours a day, but he always goes early in the morning so he can get back around early evening.

Breakfast was yummy and fresh. I mean, I love Orihime. I'd fight for her, die for her, anything at all. But her cooking is just…. no. No _way_.

"Tatsu-chan, where are you off to?" Mom asked. Despite the fact that I can shatter cinder blocks with my bare hands, she still worries about me wandering around Karakura on my own. It is a mother thing, I guess.

"I'm meeting up with Orihime and some other friends. We're all… Well, we've kind of got this thing going on right now," I said. "It's kind of like a club, except the membership's too small to really call it that."

"Oh? What are you all doing?"

"Um… Gotta go!"

I couldn't come up with an excuse for that. Lame.

I gave mom a hug and darted out the door. Fifteen minutes later I was in front of Yoruichi-sensei and doing my warm ups.

The others drifted in here and there, and soon we were inside again. I stayed away from my target on the wall that day. I kind of felt like the damn thing was laughing at me and that could not bode well for my sanity.

Keigo and Yasutora had stopped with the Dragonball type power up yells and now alternatively stood still, walked around, or pulled a me and hit stuff, trying to figure out how to get their powers back.

Mizuiro was sitting in his corner again, the _seki-seki_ diadem on the floor. His _reiatsu_ was definitely more restrained than before. But it still didn't look like it was enough, because I could feel it twitching and flaring. Not to mention the screwed up expression on his face that said how hard it was to restrain it to that level.

Orihime had the Shun Shun Rikka working on her Sacred Tri-Link Shield. Yoruichi-sensei was flicking pebbles, screws, and whatever else he could get his paws on at Orihime, forcing her to maneuver the shield in time to block them. I wondered how he was throwing the darn things without any fingers.

You came here to hear a good story, right? Not something that drones on about the useless stuff, but something that keeps you entertained? Thought so. I'll skip ahead to the good stuff.

Around one o'clock, when Yourichi-sensei was about to give us a break, Keigo disappeared.

Not left. Not stepped outside. _Disappeared_. As in, now you see me and now you don't.

Keigo.

Blink.

No Keigo.

Get it?

Mizuiro certainly didn't.

"He's gone!" Mizuiro shrieked.

"Genius, I see that!" I yelled back.

"No, I mean _he is gone. _I can't feel his _reiatsu_ and I can't hear him thinking!"

Yeah, I didn't notice that at first. Not the hearing his thoughts thing, Mizuiro was alone on that one, but I did find myself unable to feel Keigo's spirit pressure. Given that I had been feeling it for over half a week now, even if it was just barely brushing against my mind, to suddenly find myself without it was a little unpleasant.

"Nobody panic," Yoruichi-sensei said. "Remember how he described his abilities? I believe he is still in the room. We simply cannot see him."

"Asano-kun!" Orihime called.

"Keigo!" Mizuiro called.

"GUYS!" Keigo screamed.

There was a 'pop' that wasn't. I know that makes absolutely zero sense, but deal with it. There was suddenly another aura in the factory again and it was Keigo. He had moved from his position near a big vat used for something and was now almost out the doorway to the outside.

"I did it, I DID IT! There was this pins and needles feeling and the whole world got weird and I walked right that pile of wood and I walked through Chad and I DID IT!!!" Keigo shrieked joyfully.

My ears hurt.

"Yes, yes, very good," Yoruichi-sensei acknowledged. "Now stop screaming."

"MIZUIRO! Did you see?! It was so awesome!" Keigo continued to scream.

"Yes, it was neat, Keigo," Mizuiro agreed.

"I said stop screaming," Yoruichi-sensei growled.

Even I could see where this was going.

"_Inoooooooooooooooueeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!!!_" Keigo sang. "I did it, I did it, I did it, I did it, I di-"

"_**SILENCE!" **_

* * *

Life sucked. 

Keigo had his powers. Orihime had her powers. Mizuiro was _getting_ his powers. Ishida had had powers for… who knows how long. I couldn't go to Ichigo to take my frustration out on him. I had to ditch the national tournament. I had broken six fingers hitting a steel vat and Orihime lectured me on my temper while she healed me.

Life. SUCKED!

The only one who I could compare myself to and not feel inferior was Yasutora and the way things were going, that wouldn't last very long.

Sigh.

I was walking home after another fruitless day of _reiatsu_ training. I was tired, hungry, and grimy. Part of me wanted to blame Yoruichi, or Ichigo, or Rukia, but that was also the part of me that started screaming in outrage when I missed out on the last bit of ice cream. In other words, it was the part of me that forever remained a bratty five year old. I ignored it.

It wasn't like I didn't know what I was getting in to when I signed up. …Well, actually, that was EXACTLY what it was like. What I mean is, it wasn't like I didn't know it would be a lot of hard work. What was pissing me off was the fact that I was starting to think I wasn't going to get a handle on my abilities until it was too late.

Mizuiro and Keigo hadn't decided whether or not they were going to the Soul Society, so it wasn't an issue with them. Orihime and Yasutora on the other hand needed to have their abilities not just under control, but capable of inflicting damage to defend themselves. Just throwing a punch or a fairy attack might work fine for a hollow that was only a step up from an animal, but I doubted it would work against a trained fighter. Yoruichi-sensei knew that too, and that was why he insisted that all of us who were going to the Soul Society learn to use our abilities in actual combat situations.

I hadn't even managed to call the armor out yet. There were only thirteen days left until Ichigo went to save Rukia. If I didn't figure it out soon, I would not have the time to learn about what I was capable of in a fight. No way Yoruichi-sensei would let me go like that.

Again, sigh.

I gave it two days. If I didn't have it together by then, I wouldn't have enough time to learn to fight with it.

Two days to get my abilities under control.

If I couldn't do that, I couldn't go to the Soul Society.

End of story.

Which meant that Ichigo and Orihime would be fighting for their lives, and for Rukia's, without me.

Just like last Wednesday.

'_Like that's gonna happen._

'_Good thing I work well under pressure.'_

* * *

_Next time – Tatsuki will get her super, shiny armor of wicked speed in her grasp before Wednesday is through, even if it kills her. …And it may damn well come to that._

_Been busy with my Tatsuki one-shots, which don't really take place in Chivalry cannon or mainstream cannon. They just exist to make you happy._


	7. Page 7

**Bleach and all of the things it incorporates are not mine. THEY ARE NOT MINE! So, nobody sue me.**

* * *

If you don't risk anything, you risk even more. – _Erica Jong_

* * *

**Day 4**

* * *

I got up before my alarm went off. Heresy, I know, but I was too keyed up to sleep for long.

I did get to spend some quality time with my mother for one, which is something that didn't happen often. It isn't for lack of trying on either of our parts. It is just that we don't have common hobbies. My mom was, and still is, a girly-girl. She cleans, she cooks, she gossips, she sews, she shops – the basic Brady mother type.

In contrast, all my attempts at cooking have resulted in the charred remains of what was once a mix of ingredients being scraped off the inside of the stove, or off the ceiling in the case of one ill fated soufflé. I can clean, but I don't get the happy vibe from doing it. I hate gossips. I find needles more useful for jabbing Ichigo in the behind during class (_that_ was a fun morning). I do like shopping, though – just not for the same things she does.

So, it was an Arisawa women morning, which I enjoyed.

Plus, I got a cookie out of it. Mom's snickerdoodles equal **YES!** always.

Another run to the factory meant another morning of waiting for everyone else to show up. Was I the only one who realized an alarm clock going off meant it was time to get out of bed? Or was it just because, boot camp aside, it was still summer vacation? One of life's great mysteries, I suppose.

Orihime beat Mizuiro by two minutes, then Mizurio himself, then Yasutora, and right when he was about to reach our block, I felt Keigo's aura halt, waver and then vanish.

You didn't have to have Orihime's massive intellect to know what he was planning.

"It appears he wants to surprise us today," Yoruichi-sensei said, echoing my thoughts.

"Kojima-kun, can you sense him this time?" Orihime asked.

Mizuiro blinked in surprise and then seemed to reconsider her request. He took off the _seki-seki_ diadem and set it on a bench nearby, then tilted his head while his eyes got glazed over.

"…No," Mizuiro finally said. "I can't feel him, even a little."

"Yoruichi-sensei, how about you?" I asked.

"No, I cannot," Yoruichi-sensei said. "It's actually quite a good thing. If I cannot feel him, I doubt any of the Soul Society's _Shinigami _will be able to surpass my own senses."

Well, there was that. Maybe we could just convince Keigo to go in alone and he could walk out with Rukia before anybody noticed what –

Pop.

"GUYS!"

'_Ohholyshitfuckme - !' _

"HYA!"

_Thwack. _

And that was why Orihime had to break out the Shun Shun Rikka before we even got inside the factory.

* * *

Keigo was an idiot in school, but he actually did have some common sense. You just had to hammer and chisel away at his peanut sized brain before you found it. Upon Shun'ō and Ayame returning his consciousness to him, he looked back on his actions and decided that just appearing out of nowhere and screaming at the top of his lungs while within attack range of a trained fighter probably wasn't something he should repeat.

I could have told him that to begin with.

Anyway….

BEGIN THE TRAINING MONTAGE!

…I wish.

Why the hell does Rocky get his weeks of Hell compressed into a three minute scene accompanied by inspirational music, but I, Arisawa Tatsuki, a girl who could beat Rocky with one hand, must struggle through mine the old fashioned way? I want justice!

I took a break from pounding away at the targets and asked Orihime to practice firing off Tsubaki at me. She wasn't too keen on the whole idea. It took me AND Yoruichi-sensei seven whole minutes of wheedling before she finally gave in. Tsubaki didn't take any encouragement at all.

A war cry sounded and he started attacking me.

My reasons for asking Orihime to do this were two in number – one, she needed to get more practice attacking others. Two, I needed to shock my own abilities awake. Sounds simple, right? Here's what actually happened, dashing my hopes of a nice ending to the spar to the ground with a wet, unmerciful SPLAT!

I did a good job of avoiding Tsubaki's attacks for a little while. He wasn't quite up to ramming speed, mostly because I kept ducking his assaults and forcing him to stop and re-aim, or just swing around wide and come in again. The guy could not perform tight turns at all. Had I given him the leeway to charge for a while, I'm sure he would have been going too fast for me to avoid entirely.

As it was, ten minutes of weaving around the fairy bastard was starting to wear me out. I was breathing hard and I could feel sweat soaking into my bra. I hated that, because it was laundry day for me and I was wearing a regular bra. Regular bras do not handle sweat and exercise well, not mine at least. The damn thing was twisting and the metal hooks were scratching against my skin and ITCHING!

Anyway, underwear issues aside, Tsubaki's attacks were getting closer and closer to me each time. Had I been given the time to spare, I could have looked over at Orihime and seen her twitching, either from tiredness or concern that Tsubaki would actually hurt me.

What happened next totally killed that fear for all time.

I finally didn't make a dodge in time and Tsubaki screamed in triumph before his cutting shield collided with my skin and bounced off like a paper airplane.

I felt like someone had slapped me with a ruler, but that was fading away even as Tsubaki floated back up from the floor he had fallen too.

I wasn't hurt in the least and _I didn't even have my armor on! _

'_What. The. Hell?'_

Okay, he might not have been strong enough to kill the hollow, but Tsubaki had put one big dent in her mask. Yet I didn't have a mark on me.

I was wondering what the hell was going on, but Tsubaki wasn't. He knew who he wanted to blame.

"Damn it woman!" Tsubaki hollered at Orihime. "How am I supposed to kill someone if you don't will it?!"

"What are you talking a… _you were trying to __**kill**__ me?!"_ I shrieked.

"Not kill, just maim," Tsubaki shrugged. Little asshole. "Still amounts to the same thing though. I can't to do _anything_ unless you get your act together!" Tsubaki yelled at Orihime.

"But I didn't want to kill Tatsuki-chan," Orihime defended herself.

"Then at least let me rough her up a bit! This is training, how are you supposed to get stronger if you don't treat it like the real deal?!"

"He has a point," Yoruichi-sensei said, coming over to us from where he had been chatting with Mizuiro about… something.

"The whole point of a spar is to prepare for actual combat. If you were fighting someone who was intending to kill you, do you think an attack like that would deter them?"

"No, but…." Orihime trailed off.

Yoruichi-sensei wasn't letting up. "No buts. The defenders of the Soul Society will kill to keep it safe. They are what stand between you and Kuchiki. Understand?"

Talk about a downer.

…. Unfortunately….

…They both had a point.

'_Sorry Orihime-chan.'_

* * *

"Okay, come at me," I said.

Keigo looked at me like I was insane.

"No way," Keigo said.

"Attack."

"No."

"Begin."

"Not going to happen."

"Fight."

"Are you kidding?"

"Kya!"

"AUGH!"

"Asano, I _will_ make sure at least one of us comes out of this day a better fighter!"

"HELP ME!"

Keigo vanished.

"…I wonder how long you can stay like that?"

'_He'll thank me for it later.'_

I was going to make Keigo stay invisible and untouchable for as long as he could push it and then I was going to make him push it for even more. Nothing like repetition and physical agony to let you know you're progressing in something. Besides, if the chicken wouldn't take me up on the offer of karate lessons, then his power was really the only thing he had going for him.

Ahem, now then.

'_Be vewy vewy quiet. I'm hunting wabbits. Huhuhuhuhuh….' _

And no, I was not getting a kick out of stalking my own classmate.

… Well, not much of one at any rate.

* * *

"So, how's the _reiatsu_ repression going?"

Mizuiro looked up at me from his sitting position on the floor space he had occupied for the past few days. I had interrupted him in the middle of his meditating, which he was getting very good at. I know this because he hadn't even looked up when Keigo knocked over a steel barrel that made a clanging sound loud enough to make Yoruichi-sensei screech. The sound had not even registered with him, I think.

"…Oh, very well, I think. I can almost keep it down without thinking about it by now," Mizuiro said.

"Really? So, no more hearing other people's thoughts?"

"Yes. Tonight I'm going to try and sleep without this thing," Mizuiro tapped the diadem. "I think I've reached the point where I can do it. I haven't just been practicing with you guys, you know. I do it when I am at home as well."

That was actually pretty cool of him. We were working with Yoruichi-sensei from early in the morning and he wouldn't let us go home until around sunset. I was dead on my feet every time I headed back to my house and I had a body that was _used_ to strenuous workouts. Then again, it wasn't like Mizuiro was doing kata all day. Maybe he was just naturally resistant to the headaches that form with too much thinking.

"So, what's it like? Repressing the stuff, I mean."

"It's… not what you're used to. The first day, I kept getting flashes of your thoughts and drawing the _reiatsu_ out, or at least trying to, is a lot different than getting rid of it. For one, you can feel it resisting."

"Huh?"

"It's part of you. It isn't supposed to be shoved down like. It is possible, sure, but it doesn't feel good."

"It hurts?"

"No, there's no pain. It just gets kind of uncomfortable after a while. Kind of like sitting on your knees for a really long time. It isn't anything too big, though. I'll take the discomfort over the telepathy any day."

"…Hey, Mizuiro?"

"Yes?"

"If I ever get enough money to spend a weekend gambling – "

"I am not going to help you cheat the card dealers, Arisawa-san."

"…"

"…No, I didn't read your mind."

"Darn."

* * *

"Okay, let 'er rip!"

Yasutora and I were getting some space from the others and had moved up to the second floor of the factory for practice. We both needed to kick start out powers, so working together gave us both a reminder of what we had to accomplish. Plus, he wasn't too afraid of taking a swing at me. I was too good at dodging for him to hit me too hard and he was too big for me to hurt unless I really put my mind to it.

We were both fighting with our _reiatsu_ going full blast. Well, as close to full blast as we could get it. Both of us were still having trouble keeping it within our grasp, me more than him. Yoruichi-sensei said that if we could fight while our control was unstable, it would make fighting when we had our powers in hand easier in comparison.

Personally, I think he just likes making things difficult.

Anyway, I was waiting for Yasutora to take another go at me. The dude actually is a lot faster than you'd think. He just isn't as fast as me.

…Which is actually really good because one good hit from him would likely keep me down for a while. Yasutora doesn't have any formal fighting training, but he makes up for it with raw strength and lots of schoolyard encounters. Apparently a lot of people go after him because of his size.

I ducked his massive fist and sent a kick at his knee. It connected, but didn't do more than make him grunt. Like I said, we weren't really trying to hurt each other.

Our _reiatsu_ didn't really add anything physical to our attacks. Holding it up like we were enhanced our spiritual senses and gave me personally something of a 'he's going to do so-and-so to you right now' sixth fighting sense. Then again, it could have just been an overall heightened state of awareness.

Still, I wouldn't have used it in a real fight. It was too much work for too little gain. Like right now – Yasutora pulling back to take a moment and reassert his control over the troublesome stuff.

I could feel it roiling around under his skin like bubbling water. The stuff just did not want to listen to him. It didn't want to listen to me either for that matter. Still, Yasutora was doing better than me. He could hang onto it for a longer amount of time. And he could funnel it into his arms for his strikes, though I didn't know why he bothered doing that. It was like packing a pipe full of air and compressing even more into it until it all found a way out. The thing was, we still hadn't found out how to direct that force. It just bled away back into us or out into the air.

Of course, that wouldn't last.

Guess which one of us figured out how to direct that released power to activate our abilities first.

Go on, guess.

"Ready?" I asked.

"… Yeah," Yasutora said after a moment.

He had pushed a lot of his energy into his right arm, so I knew he was going to go at me from that side. I loosened up my knees and waited for him to move. Yasutora charged, drawing his arm back for a swing. I jumped back, out of his range, and bent down a bit to get under his guard. Theoretically, this would allow for me to go for his stomach.

Too bad my theories hadn't accounted for a huge fucking energy blast to come right at me.

'_SHIT!'_

Jump to the left, Tatsuki! GET TO THE FUCKING LEFT!

…Whoop, there's a wall there.

* * *

"Tatsuki-chan?"

Shun Shun Rikka, revitalize!

…Owie.

Thankfully, the pain was receding. Not as fast as I would like, but it was going away. Gotta love Orihime. You really do.

"Stupid bitch! Why did you jump into a wall when this big guy was going at you?"

…Tsubaki, not so much.

Maybe Orihime's next task could be getting out the Shun Shun Rikka one set at a time?

Oh God, I had jumped straight into a wall. That was so damn stupid of me. Then again, considering what I was trying to avoid….

'_Hey, why aren't I all crispy?' _

"Sado, did the attack hit?"

Everyone was crowding around me. The blast had caused enough of a disturbance to be heard and felt downstairs, and Yoruichi-sensei had herded everyone up to see what the heck us stupid young ones had managed to do this time.

So, everyone was there to see me get healed up, except no one was looking that sick. Which was weird, because if that attack really had hit me, then I know someone would have puked from the gore.

"Tatsuki-chan, look," Orihime said urgently, pointing at me.

I looked down at my body, something I probably should have done to begin with, and saw the remains of liquid mercury type stuff dripping off of my body and dissolving upon contact with the floor.

'…_NO! COME BACK! COME!! BACK!!'_

"I didn't see all of it," Yasutora said. "Just a little. But I think, right when you jumped away, that stuff came out of your skin and protected you from the worst of the blast. Sorry about that by the way."

"S'okay," I muttered, preoccupied with trying to get what was left of the armor to harden back up again. So far, I was not having any luck. The most I seemed to be doing was slowing the melting down. It was dripping off less, but it still wasn't holding to my skin. Damn.

"Are you all right?" Yoruichi-sensei asked, padding up to where I was sitting against the wall.

Sadly, answering that question took my concentration away from the armor and it vanished all the way. Life doth sucketh.

"Oh, _why me…?! _Yes Yoruichi-sensei, I am fine."

"Well, then."

'_Hey, he looks kind of mad ohholyGod__**no!'**_

Aura of Doom™.

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?! YOU COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED, TO SAY NOTHING OF THE KIND OF ATTENTION THAT BLAST ATTRACTED! YOU JUST BLEW A WALL OUT!"

Oh hey, he wasn't scratching me. Score.

Come to think of it, were people looking up at us?

I turned my back on Yoruichi-sensei's tirade against stupidity and looked out the huge gaping hole Yasutora had created. Yeah, there were people. Lots of people. Mostly construction workers from the site a block over.

'_They look real tiny from he – OW!'_

Damn it, there was the scratching.

"No staring, you stupid girl! They'll see you! All of you out the back door, now!" Yoruichi-sensei barked.

We all scrambled to comply, me especially. His claws _hurt_.

Unfortunately, we were perhaps scrambling a bit too quickly. We all clumped together trying to get down the stairs and back to the first floor at the same time, and poor Mizuiro got shoved down the steps by an ill-placed elbow.

With no spare time for the Shun Shun Rikka treatment, Yasutora tossed Mizuiro over his shoulder like a damsel in distress and we beat it out of the factory for the last time.

At least I wouldn't have to see those damn targets any more.

* * *

**Day 5**

* * *

Well, it had finally come.

My last day to get everything under wraps.

PANIC!

The night before Yoruichi-sensei had given us a set of directions to an empty lot at the edge of Karakura that would hopefully give us some privacy while we worked. I didn't know about Keigo, but I no desire for my photo to get plastered on the front page of some tabloid.

That night, while I applied Neosporin to my newest cat scratch, a plan had formed in my mind. It was stupid, it was risky and it was likely to get me killed (or mauled), but I didn't care.

I was getting my super shiny armor of speedy coolness and that was that, damn it!

The only hitch was I needed some help to do it.

Orihime was definitely out. I couldn't ask her to do this.

Mizuiro… likewise. Making me relive the whole ordeal would almost definitely work, but as far as I knew he hadn't been practicing mind control. Also, I didn't know if he was even capable of that or if his abilities ended at listening in on thoughts. Either way, I didn't want to be a catatonic vegetable because he messed up my head while trying to help.

Keigo was a definite no-no. He could surprise me by popping out of nowhere, but I didn't see him as a real threat and I was going to have to be _really_ scared for this to work.

Which left Yasutora and Yoruichi-sensei.

Yoruichi-sensei was a definite threat to my health and safety. It wasn't just that he scared the living fuck out of me when he was mad, though that did contribute some of it. There was… okay, remember that aura of Doom™ he gets when he is mad? Well, his _reiatsu_ leaks through to it and - while I would have to ask Mizuiro to see if this is true - from the strength of just that tiny amount, I think Yoruichi-sensei is repressing his _reiatsu_ around us.

A lot.

Which would mean he is the strongest out of us all, probably stronger than all of us combined, and he could definitely rip me into a thousand tiny pieces, adorable kitty cat body or not.

Now, while this is good news for us saving Rukia, I simply don't feel comfortable asking Yoruichi-sensei to come at me full throttle in an attempt to give my powers the proper shock they need to wake up. A – because he might actually do it and thus kill my ass. B – because he might really be a responsible teacher and tell me to go stand in front of a train if I want to risk my life so badly.

A train would not work.

It was the blast from Yasutora that had finally gotten me to thinking that I had been going at this the wrong way. All of us had different powers. What I don't think any of us realized (except maybe Yoruichi-sensei), and what I had not realized until the day before, was just how different they were.

I'm a fighter. I think that's why my powers came out the way they did. With the others, who had never been in a karate class with a sensei saying _practice_ and _restraint_ and _focus_ and _only kill if you will be killed otherwise_, just remembering the fear and panic while trying to yank on their _reiatsu_ at the same time had been enough.

Me?

I repressed that fear. I repressed the mere _memory_ of fear. I. Was. A. Fighter. It was what I had been trained to do. Do not fear, just do it. Ergo, I could remember that hollow beating the shit out of me until the sun went super nova and _it would not do shit because I __**knew**__ I wasn't really in danger! _

I could jump away from a train. A train could not double back around to flatten me on another try. Therefore, unless both my legs were broken, a train was not a suitable threat to my life.

I had to be fighting for my life. I had to be afraid for my life or for the life of someone I cared about. I had to want to fight, to live, to _win_. It had to be the real freaking thing, or it was no good. I needed to be bleeding and sweating and dodging and cursing and _needing_ that armor.

_That_ was why it hadn't shown up since the attack on Orihime and me until Yasutora blasted me.

I hadn't needed it until there was no way for me to dodge an attack that would have flash fried me.

To get my power, I needed someone to try to kill me.

And I am totally not joking about this.

So, I poured my all into training that day. I fought my shadow until I was ready to collapse from exhaustion when Yoruichi-sensei let us call it quits.

I walked away like I usually did and kept going until I got home. I ate my dinner with my parents, took a shower and crawled into bed.

Then I waited.

The numbers on my new clock seemed to be going in slow motion.

Finally, at 11:30 at night, I got out of bed, got dressed and had the phone operator connect me to Yasutora.

And I asked him to meet me at the highway turnoff that led to the forest outside of Karakura in an hour.

* * *

He actually agreed to meet me.

When a girl calls up a guy she doesn't know that well at midnight and asks for his help, and he says he will come, it says a lot about that guy.

Yasutora, you kick ass.

I was actually the one who showed up second. His place is closer to Karakura's edge than mine. I knew it was him, not because of his ridiculous size, but because he had on a violently green tropical shirt that made my eyes hurt even in the dark. I kind of hope he is colorblind, otherwise he is severely fashion impaired.

"So, what's up?" Yasutora asked me when I pulled up beside him.

"I need your help getting my power going," I said.

"What?"

"I think I know why I've been having so much trouble getting it to come out on my own. It needs a push. It only came out when I really needed it, once against the hollow at our school and then again when you blasted me."

"So… you want me to attack you?"

Smart guy, ain't he?

"Pretty much, yeah. I can't ask Orihime to do, and Asano and Kojima aren't really suited for it."

Yasutora was silent for a moment. Then…

"…Arisawa-san, this…."

…Is something I am totally okay with?

"…Is a really bad idea."

Well, whatever. I was kind of expecting that one, too.

"I can't think of anything else, Sado. I'm running out of time and I _don't_ want to get left behind."

'_Please understand, Yasutora, __**please**_.'

"You want to help Ichigo, right? Well, I do, too. I've been fighting ever since I can remember and I _know_ I can be a help to him if I just get my powers under control. I owe Rukia for saving me, too. I gotta pay her back for that. _I can't go to the Soul Society unless you help me!"_

That was all I could say.

There weren't words to express the burning in my heart, the physical _ache_ that throbbed at the thought of my two best friends going off to fight a battle without me, to know that I was once again nothing but a burden. I _hated_ it. I had to go to the Soul Society with them. I _had_ to.

To be useless, to be a spectator….

That was not how I had lived my life until this point.

That was not going to change now.

But what if Yasutora couldn't see that?!

He didn't say anything. It was scaring me and I really kind of hated his guts for that.

This was it. My future was hanging in Yasutora's fingertips. He could pull me up or toss me down.

'_Yasutora, you had better help me or I. Swear. To. __**God!**__ ….'_

"…You're like me."

Uh….

What?

Last I checked, I was not tall, dark and handsome. Nor was I a guy.

…Not that I would have minded the tall part….

"…You want to fight with Ichigo. You want to watch his back when he can't," Yasutora said.

…He got it.

…_He actually understood! _

_**WOO-HOO! **_

"_Yes_, damn it all," I said.

Yasutora stared at me really hard for just a second. It was slightly creepy. The guy might be as mellow as all Hell, but he is _big!_ He has muscles on his muscles.

"…I'll help," Yasutora finally said.

HAPPY DAY!

…Night. Whatever.

"Then let's go," I said.

* * *

_Next time – Venture forth into the darkness, young knight, and awaken the strength to do battle!_

…_And do it quick, 'cause Chad's much faster than he looks. _

_In regards to a certain someone asking about Uryuu's behavior during the group interrupting his training session, had it been just the guys then I think he would have been much less forgiving. However, let us remember THE PRIDE OF THE QUINCY, and how Uryuu is so damn polite that it really makes you wonder if he wasn't born back in the 1800's. It was really for Orihime and Tatsuki's sake that Uryuu put up with them all. …Mostly Orihime. I seriously can't ever imagine Ishida-kun being rude to a woman, can you?_

_And since I know somebody is going to bring it up, YES, Tatsuki was kind of hard on Orihime during their spar, but seriously – the girl DOES have violence issues. Orihime, that is. Not Tatsuki. She saw Yammy attacking people, one of whom was her best friend, and Tsubaki STILL didn't have enough killing intent to hurt Yammy. Tatsuki recognizes this in Orihime and is trying to gently change it. She doesn't want Orihime to lose her Orihimeness, but Tatsuki also knows that there is likely to be some nasty trouble up ahead in the Soul Society and that Orihime will stand a better chance if she can protect herself. _

_Above all else, remember that this is an __**alternate universe**__ story, and that means there are going to be some changes in both the plot and in the characters._

_Tatsuki still thinks she can and should protect Orihime from trouble, but that has begun to change into something else and it will continue to do so. Not too fast, though. _

…_And NO, this isn't going to turn into a shoujou-ai romance. They are friends. __**That's it.**_

_Ciao._


	8. Page 8

**Bleach and all of the things it incorporates are not mine. THEY ARE NOT MINE! So, nobody sue me.**

* * *

On the edge of destiny, you must test your strength _– "Billy"._

* * *

We found a decent sized clearing about two hundred yards into the woods. We scared away a couple of tiny deer upon our arrival. The night was bright from a nearly full moon and there were crickets chirping peacefully alongside the babbling of a small creek. A chorus of frogs was croaking. It was a truly serene night.

And me and Yasutora were about to start blasting it all to Hell.

'_Oh well. Survival of the fittest and all that….'_

"You sure about this, Arisawa-san?"

"Yeah. Dead sure."

Not the best choice of words, perhaps, but it got the point across.

We squared off.

Yasutora was a huge looming figure in the silvery moonlight. It gave his hair argent highlights.

I was significantly tinier, but I was much more motivated. That counted for something, right?

I slid down into _zenkutsu-datchi_, the first stance I ever learned. Front leg bent, back leg straight, fifty-fifty weight distribution, ready to _rock and __**roll!**_

Yasutora coming right at me didn't leave a whole lot of room for rocking, so I went for a roll.

I rolled left and spun on my back, swinging my heel out at one of Yasutora's ankles.

He jumped away and I got up as quick as I could, hauling my fist back for a punch to his solar plexus. _Way_ faster than I thought he would react, he grabbed my incoming wrist and pulled straight up. This left me running towards his chest. Given that his other arm was swinging around, I could only imagine that he was going to crush me silly with the bear hug of death. Before I got too close to get away, I jumped up and kicked out. I used the momentum from jumping off Yasutora's chest to do a tight back flip and land on my feet. Yasutora went down with me. How? When I kicked off of his chest, the hand he had captured within his own locked around his wrist. My spin had enough strength in it to twist his arm alongside my body and that brought him to his knees, with me in a position to break his arm off.

I was not happy.

If Yasutora had been holding onto my arm just a little tighter, I would not have been able to do that. He wasn't taking me seriously. Jerk.

I let go of his arm and watched him stand up. He didn't seem that big anymore. Then again, I had just brought him to the ground like a cow for branding.

"Damn it, man!" I cursed. "Try harder! I _know_ you can do better than that, the hollow would have killed you otherwise!"

Yasutora rubbed his wrist. "Sorry. I just don't really want to fight you."

Okay, what I did next was totally inexcusable. I could claim that I was stressed from the past week, stressed from the upcoming infiltration, worried that my friends were going to leave me behind, angry at my own uselessness in general, and upset for lack of results. It still doesn't change the fact that I acted like a total bitch queen just because the guy who said he wanted to help me didn't want to actually _hurt_ me.

I apologized to him later, but still….

Not one of my better moments right here.

I gritted my teeth and balanced on my toes.

"Here," I spat out. "Let me _help you_."

And I _went at him_!

All the frustration I had failed to take out on the cement wall targets, I began to take out on Yasutora. He was just one big punching bag.

A jab to his nose was blocked, but I got him with a shot to kidneys. He staggered back and I went aerial. I normally don't do this unless I'm totally sure I can get away with it, because once you get going it's kind of hard to stop in mid-air. That night, I wasn't sure I could get away with it. I just wanted to get at Yasutora's face, which was a good foot or so above my own. I wanted to get at his face because it was a good way to make him get serious, because it was a good way to show him that I was serious and, just in case this wasn't already clear to you all, I was really, _really_ pissed off.

By the way, I got away with it.

My foot collided with Yasutora's face. Yasutora staggered back, I fell down and landed with one knee bent, the other one lashing out to kick him in the kneecap. Yasutora fell to one knee. I twisted and flung myself back onto both feet, hunching down into another fighting stance.

"Get up," I growled.

He was just sitting there, staring at me like he didn't know what I was. I kind of snapped. I had just kicked the face of a guy I liked and I was in the middle of the fucking forest at midnight trying to awaken fucking _superpowers_ to help my idiot friend go into the land of the dead to save some _Shinigami_ who had disguised herself as a classmate and I _did not want to get left behind_ and he was just _fucking __**sitting there! **_

"Get _up_, asshole!" I screamed. "YOU FUCKING _PROMISED_!!"

Okay, he had not actually used the word 'promise', but I didn't really give a flying fuck at that point.

I charged, aiming for his now lower to the ground face. Yasutora stood up at my approach and damn near blotted out the moon. I don't know if he finally understood that I _really_ wanted a real fight or if he was just defending himself against the crazed girl going after him, but he punched at me.

I dodged and went sideways. Then I got back up and went after him again, circling around him and looking for way to get through his guard. What he gave me was clearly a feint, but I did not care. It gave me an excuse to move. I charged and ducked when he swung his left arm at me. My fist was halfway to his ribs when his right arm snatched me around the wrist again. He gripped it good this time. Remember how I said Yasutora could already probably have punched through anything, even without the freaky powers thing? Well, that is because he is really strong. Like, strong enough to hurl a one hundred pound girl through the air like she is a Frisbee strong.

I went flying and not in a fun way.

I tumbled through the air and just barely managed to get my feet underneath me when I landed. I rolled back and came up on all fours, still sliding back and getting grass and dirt underneath my fingernails. I looked up and saw him coming at me, one of those huge arms drawing back for another punch. I jumped away just as he slammed his fist down where my head would have been.

The ground _crumbled! _

It was like he had punched brittle clay. The ground just shattered and then sank into a crater. In the center of that hole was Yasutora, his arm buried up to the elbow.

'_Huh. Good thing I dodged.' _

It wasn't until he pulled his arm out that I saw what had happened. Yasutora's arm had gone dark. Predominantly black, with one big maroon stripe going down the middle and one white stripe on either side of the maroon. Where a person's arm would end and go on to the shoulder, this kept going for a few more inches, providing a kind of guard for Yasutora's shoulder joint. Little wing-like things extended from Yasutora's wrist for some reason that escaped me.

Yasutora stood up real slow and I got a case of the shivers.

"Arisawa-san," Yasutora said in his rumbly voice. He looked at me with those huge, dark, serious eyes of his.

"I'm ready to be serious now."

"Good," I answered.

_Stomp-stomp-stomp! _

_Swish-swish-swish! _

His footsteps were heavy and mine were light. Not a big surprise considering he had about one hundred pounds on me. What was a surprise was how quickly we reached each other. Yasutora was faster than I thought he would be. I was still faster, but not by as much as I had thought I would be.

Anyway, he swung that freaky arm of his at me and I ducked, rolled and came up behind him, aiming a fist for his kidneys. He jumped to the side and my fist only grazed him. Yasutora spun on one heel, bringing that bizarre arm around towards my face. I ducked again and scrambled away from him.

My adrenaline glands were going. I was sweating and panting. The best part was, I hadn't even really gotten started yet.

I charged and slid between Yasutora's legs. Straightening my spine, I kicked out behind myself and caught him in the small of the back. While he was stumbling forward and off balance, I spun around and jumped, rising up a good foot or so to land a hard punch between his shoulder blades. He actually grunted when I did that. It was good to know the guy could actually feel discomfort.

Still, he finally managed to turn around at the same moment that I touched down onto the ground. He swung at me again, I ducked again, and then, breaking his fists-only pattern, he kicked me while I was crouching.

Imagine being hit by a guy who can withstand a steel girder falling on his head.

Now, imagine being kicked by the legs that can hold up that guy _and_ the steel girder on his head.

Yasutora's power might influence his right arm, but it isn't like his lower body strength is lacking.

I fucking _blasted_ across that clearing.

I tumbled into the creek. As I was madly trying to get back onto my feet, I happened to see something resembling a star on Earth light up to me right. I turned my head to get a better look at it and saw Yasutora charging up a beam cannon of death.

'_Shitshitshit__**move!**__'_

The rocks beneath my hands and feet were loose and slippery. Not ideal conditions for jumping out of the way of incoming pain. So, really, I _should_ have been hit, but I wasn't. Right before Yasutora let it loose, I finally got just a little bit of solid ground beneath my feet (it was mostly mud) and I jumped out of the way.

_Sheeeeeeeeeewooooooooosh_ went the bright beam of energy, right past where I had been and hitting the closest tree past that point. It exploded, sending heat and splinters against my skin. Then the vacuum kicked in and my ears popped as the air rushed in to fill the void. No time to think, though. Yasutora was coming again and I wasn't fast enough to avoid the punch he landed right in my ribs. Thankfully, it was his left arm that did it. Still hurt like a bitch.

I tumbled into the swath that Yasutora's blast had burned into the forest floor. It was really hot and I felt my skin burning the moment I touched it. I was definitely going to have some blisters come morning. I landed wrong and wound up on my back. It would have taken me longer to get to my feet and then jump away, so I didn't. I just flung my legs up and back and shoved away from the hot dirt with my hands.

Something odd, then. I normally would have gotten only a meter or so out of that move. Instead, I got ten feet away from where I was. Of course, I didn't notice it until I had had time to stop and think, but that came later.

I was on my feet and moving. I didn't want Yasutora to get another charge in. Those weren't going so well for me. I ran and –

_- easy it's easy to move why so fast _–

- got to him a bit faster than I had anticipated. I jumped up to meet his right arm, caught it in both my hands and used it like a pole to hold me up while I tattooed my shoe prints on Yasutora's face. I got two kicks in before he lowered his right arm and three more in before he shook me off.

I landed on my feet and skidded back. I raised and crossed my arms to block a punch and that sent me skidding back a few more feet, but it didn't send me flying like it should have. Given that he was not riding an adrenaline high on par with the altitude of the Budweiser blimp, Yasutora noticed it first.

"Arisawa-san, you've got – "

Unfortunately, I was a bit too frenzied to listen.

Yasutora was trying to tell me something really important, but all I saw was an opening. Two steps forward, one leap up and I broke his nose in one hard knock. I know this because I could feel the cartilage that made up the bridge of his nose shift under my knuckles.

The good news – the plan was working. I was fighting for my life.

The bad news – the plan was working. I was fighting for my life.

Reeling back from my punch, I sent a kick into Yasutora's stomach and brought him to his knees. I laced my fingers together and was ready to smash the top of his head in as best I could when the moonlight saved me from making a really big mistake.

My skin was glowing.

Now, I wash myself regularly, but not nearly enough to earn a luster level sheen to my body. Mahana and Orihime alone have that. So, it took a second for my brain to work around the problem of figuring out why I was all sparkly, but when the answer came, it was most welcome.

'…_POWERS! WHEE!' _

Of course, right when I thought that, the bouncy, giddy energy I now pegged as _reiatsu_ and not just adrenaline began to leave, figuring that its work was done.

'_No you don't!' _

I had felt it for a brief instant against the hollow at school. I had felt it again during the last day in the abandoned factory. Where I had failed to keep it by desperation, I now succeeded in keeping it by rage.

Rage that I was weak. Rage that I was in danger of losing.

Protection?

Yeah, Yoruichi-sensei had gotten that part right. I had wanted to protect Orihime and then I had wanted to protect myself, but that wasn't all. I was pissed at those people for mobbing my friend. I was furious at that octopus _bitch_ for scaring Orihime and (tell anyone and I will fucking kill you, seriously) hurting Chizuru. I hated seeing Orihime having to fight for me because I was too pathetic to protect myself, let alone her. I was seething with rage when that hollow tried to flatten her. I hated my own stupidity when I saw Yasutora's blast come at me and thought, _'oh, this is a damn __**stupid**__ way to die.' _

I would protect my friends.

But the thing that drove me most wasn't fear for their lives or horror that someone would actually try to kill them.

It was sheer, bloody _wrath_ that _anyone_ would try to take away the people who I had claimed as mine. Mine. No fancy titles, no misunderstandings. They. Were. _Mine._ My friends. My buddies. _No one_ touched them. _Ever. _

And if anyone wanted to try, they would damn well have to step over my twitching, bleeding, broken, still warm body and watch out for the death spasms that would land their feet within reach of my still sharp nails because _I would fucking kill them._

They were _mine._

End of discussion, asshole.

The armor stayed on me. It fed on my rage and I grew drunk with it, feeling the quicksilver lightning shoot through my veins like a drug. I didn't see Yasutora slowly staggering to his feet and I didn't see the small fires that his blast had started. All I could see, all I could perceive, was the metal sheathing that covered my hands and arms and extended down my legs to my feet and under my clothes and all over. I was a lightning bolt, I was the daughter of the north wind, I was invincible, I was unbeatable –

"_WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" _

I was in sudden fear for my life.

I could hear the tendons in my neck popping from stress as I slowly turned my head to the rough path that led back to the highway into Karakura Town. Nearby, looking ready to vomit from fear (or possibly me kicking him in the gut), Yasutora did the same.

Standing at the edge of the trees and looking like he was about to eat our eyeballs was Yoruichi-sensei.

'_Oh fuck, we're busted.' _

* * *

_Next time – There are two ways to enter Soul Society. One – an illegal interdimensional gate built by an eccentric shopkeeper. Two – get murdered by your black cat sensei and wait for an enterprising Shinigami to give you a Soul Burial._

_The wait is over! I may be getting a new job as well, so smiles all around!_

_Also, a little preview for you - _

There was a lot of screaming.

And explosions. Mustn't forget the explosions.

Tatsuki pressed herself up against the wall and waited for a space to appear in the flow of panicking high school students. She was part of the Disciplinary Committee and technically was supposed to be directing the students to the exits. Tatsuki had a feeling they knew where the exits were, as evidenced by the mass of fleeing teenagers she could see through the window. That just left her looking out for stragglers or, worse, people who got knocked down and trampled.

And where the hell was Orihime?

She'd disappeared in the confusion alongside Ishida, Ichigo, Rukia and Yasutora. The majority of Tatsuki wanted to go find her, but the minority (which happened to be most of her common sense) said that the odds of finding one girl in this stampede were slim to none. Tatsuki had a wierd radar for Orihime, yes, but it didn't do much good if she couldn't move through a crowd of panicked huamnity to follow it.

Growling at the whole damn situation, Tatsuki wondered if it would really be so bad to just take her chances with charging into the crowd and forcing her way through. She was short, but she'd taken hard knocks before. And if she stayed close to the walls, out of the way of the bulk of the flood, maybe -

There was a sudden surge behind her.

Tatsuki didn't know what the energy was. Over the past few weeks, as she slowly began feeling new things and seeing stuff she would have - _should_ have - written off as daydreams or her imagination if it weren't for the way everyone else started acting when she pressed them about it, she realized that she wasn't having her senses sharpened so much as expanded. There was something new now, something that let her feel a monster before she heard it give that horrible wailing shriek from somewhere in Karakura. That same thing let her feel when the monster died at the same moment that another, lighter aura appeared near it.

That sense was telling her to move the fuck away from the wall.

Tatsuki jumped, surging into the writhing student body of Karakura high school, forcing her way to classroom across the hall where there would be cover from what was coming.

"Get out of the way!" Tatsuki screamed.

_'Oh God, they can't see it, can't **feel it coming**!'_

"Get _down! Get - "_

The wall exploded.

Plaster and steel and wood and glass and dust filled the hallway. Tatsuki blinked and realized she was on the floor. She had fallen down, no, been knocked down. Her ears were ringing.

Tatsuki sat up on her hands and knees, feeling someone's limp body slide off of her. She sucked and spat out blood from a cut inside her mouth.

"Damn," Tatsuki hissed. "_Damn."_

"What? You think _that_ was impressive?"

Tatsuki froze. That voice was...

The karate practitioner rolled over and sat on her butt, staring up at the tall man - _not a man **not a **_- who stared down at her, a look of bored arrogance on his face. He had blue hair that stood up in a wave on his skull and blue tattoes lining his eyes. An open white jacket and a bare chest and a sword hanging at his hip. It didn't look like a fake either. His eyes were so blue that they almost glowed. There was something attached to his cheek, just where his jaw bone would be - _it grew out of his skin what is he what _- if you peeled away the skin.

But what really got her attention, apart from the fact that he was floating a few inches above the body riddled floor, was the _huge fucking hole in his god damn chest_.

The man -_ thing _- smiled and Tatsuki felt very small and weak.

"Bitch, you ain' seen nuthin' yet."

_**Camel's Nose** - Grimm/Tatsu, if you can believe it. Sequel to **Defiance of the Natural Order**. It's been a week since Grimmjaw got a tooth knocked loose by that crazy dragon bitch and he's very keen to return the favor with some interest. Ichigo is out to prevent this. Tatsuki is not appreciative of that fact. Humor, action, drama, and the most violent courtship ever seen. Theirs is not a happily ever after, folks. _

_For some reason, most people seemed to like **Defiance** best out of all the Tatsuki one-shots I've posted lately. Upon further reflection, I decided it was because this is the most cracktastic pairing since Hanatarou and Zangetsu. After a little more reflection, I realized I wanted to write a story where Grimmjaw gets the shit kicked out of him on a daily basis by Ichigo for stalking Tatsuki and Tatsuki kicks the shit out of Ichigo for not letting her deal with it personally. Everyone loves to hit a strawberry. It'll be coming soon._


	9. Page 9

**Bleach and all of the things it incorporates are not mine. THEY ARE NOT MINE! So, nobody sue me.**

* * *

Did I.Q.s just drop sharply while I was away?– _Ellen Ripley, __Aliens__._

* * *

My first thought was, _run_.

My second thought was, _no, I won't be able to move fast enough._

My third thought was, _I am about to be bloody fucking murdered by a housecat. _

"_You…."_

The word was drawn out and hissed with a low menace.

Yoruichi-sensei's black fur was riding up along his back, his pointed ears were flat alongside his skull and his needle-ish teeth and claws were stark white in the otherwise dark forest.

The living incarnation of all the Halloween black cat icons that ever rode on a broomstick alongside their witch mistresses stalked towards Yasutora and I, rooting us to the ground with his sheer rage at our stunt.

"You _little IDIOTS!_" Yoruichi-sensei shrieked. "Do you have the _slightest_ clue what you could have done?!"

'_Something bad?' _

"Hollows are attracted to spiritual energy and you two were putting off enough to be felt for miles! You fools may as well have put up a buffet sign!"

It was kind of odd for him to be so angry, especially since I couldn't feel or hear any Hollows around.

"_YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!!" _

And, of course, the moment that I thought that, the first shriek ripped through the night air.

Damn it.

"Move you idiots, _move!"_ Yoruichi-sensei ordered.

We moved.

The air was shivering with a sudden outburst of energy. All around me were shrieks and screams as more Hollows began approaching us. It wasn't as bad as that afternoon when I first found out I could turn into a walking body brace, but it still sounded like a lot of them. At least four.

"Stay in the forest!" Yoruichi-sensei ordered. "The Soul Society will be sending someone to investigate this and slay the Hollows, and you two must not be seen! Repress your power and stay out of sight!"

Yoruichi-sensei kept pace with us until we were a few dozen yards into the forest and then he peeled away from us.

"Where are you going?!" I called.

"To keep the Hollows busy until the _Shinigami_ arrive! Get back to Karakura!"

I lost sight of him as he ran away into the darkness. The moonlight couldn't shine through the branches and his black fur blended right in. In a related story, now that Yasutora and I were running without proper time to feel our way through the pitch black forest, we were running into trees, branches and bushes with every other step.

("_Ow!_ Fuck it!"

"Bush."

"Would've been more helpful three seconds ago!"

"Sorry.")

We finally burst out onto the highway that led back into town and kept running on the blacktop road. Behind us, the shrieking of the Hollows was, if anything, getting louder. I took a glance back over my shoulder and saw something leaping above the tree tops before diving back down, presumably to dive bomb a Hollow. I thought it was Yoruichi-sensei, but it looked like a human. Only thing was, it didn't look like it was wearing a _Shinigami's_ robes either.

Then I tripped over a dip in the road, Yasutora caught me before I fell and I forgot all about it.

That moment would make much more sense to me in about two weeks, but let's stick with what happened in order.

It was late enough that there was no traffic in town and Yasutora and I made it back to Karakura without encountering any _Shinigami_. Neither of us was really sure how Yoruichi-sensei was going to find us, or even if he meant to, so we just decided to each head home. I needed a rest anyway. I might be a good martial artist, but Sado is a bear in a human skin and his punches really freaking hurt.

"So, uh… good night," I said lamely.

"Good night," Sado replied.

Awkward moment.

"Um… thanks a lot for beating me up. …I mean, you know. Helping me with this stuff."

'_Why do I suck so much at saying thank you?! Argh!' _

"No problem. Thought it was a bad idea, but I guess not," Sado said. "You know yourself best."

"Sure do," I agreed. "Oh, and could you not mention this to anyone?"

"Sure. Bye."

"Good bye."

Well, _that_ was over.

I went back home and snuck inside without waking my parents up. I'm not one of those girls who routinely take off in the middle of the night, so I didn't want my parents to think I was getting new and bad habits. They're pretty lenient with me and I really didn't want that to change. Especially since I was going to be ditching them in the near future to go hop into the afterlife.

No, that still hadn't gotten normal to think about.

While I was changing back into my pajamas my cell phone started to vibrate. I'd been leaving it on lately as a precaution against… something, I don't know. I'd rather know that someone could contact me if they needed to and never needed to, then go to the park one day and find out that my cousin had been murdered there the day before, or something. Peace of mind, you know?

The number on the little screen wasn't one I recognized, so I answered the phone ready to give my best bitch impression to whoever was on the other end. Even if I was already awake, who the Hell calls at 3 A.M.?

"Arisawa-san?" Mizuiro's voice came through the phone sounding concerned.

Well, there went the bitch plan. He wasn't really one of my friends (but the way things were going, that would probably change), but I was willing to bet he had a good reason for calling me when he did.

'_At least, he __**better**__.'_

"Yeah, Kojima? I'm here?"

"What were you doing a few minutes ago?"

I opened my mouth to lie and immediately closed it when I realized that he _damn well knew_ what was going on. He just wanted to know why. Yoruichi-sensei had said that Yasutora and I were putting off power like a furnace puts off heat and, while the others might be able to sleep through something like that, Kojima I Know Your Thoughts Mizuiro would _not_. Hadn't he proved over and over again during the week that he had a better range for sensing _reiatsu_ than anyone else among us? It must have been like having a foghorn go off next to his ear.

"Um… Yasutora and I were sparring."

'_And I broke his face.' _

"I kind of guessed that. Why?"

"…Well, I wanted more practice. The stuff we all do with Yoruichi-sensei _is_ helping, but I needed something else to get my stuff working. It worked, by the way."

"Hm, so that's what that was" Mizuiro said thoughtfully.

"What? That's what what was?" I asked.

"I felt your energy change for a little while," Mizuiro explained. "I didn't know what it was, but now it makes sense. Everyone else's changed too."

"What do you mean changed?" I asked. Did Orihime calling the Shun Shun Rikka and Sado bringing out his buster arm send out an alarm or something?

"I mean your energy feels different when you're using your powers. Mine too I guess, but I can't feel mine as well. When you're like you are now, it's just kind of sitting there. It's relaxed and I can feel it that way. But when you start using it actively, when you focus it into your abilities, like Inoue-san's Shun Shun Rikka, then it feels different. More tense. Does that make sense?"

It did not.

"Yeah, kind of," I lied and started to say my goodbyes.

"Liar." Mizuiro said.

_That_ stopped me cold.

"It ties in with how much you express your power, Arisawa-san," Mizuiro was saying. Like it was a fucking afternoon tea party and we were discussing my choice of wall paper, instead of the fact that _he knew I was lying when he was seventeen miles away!_

"When you tighten your power up and don't let it flow freely, it's a bit harder for me to hear your thoughts… though, _hearing_ isn't really the right word. It's like I'm thinking them at the same time that you are. …Anyway, the point is, when you relax, you think loud. I can't hear anything now, so I'm assuming that you're freaking out and totally tense."

Mind reader.

"Okay, Kojima? Listen, because I'm only saying this once," I said. My palms were sweating and my words were coming out kind of fast. I didn't care a lot right then because Mizuiro was right. I was really, _really_ fucking freaked.

Good God, _how far had his range extended since Monday?! _Uryu's training site had been only five miles or so from the warehouse, but that had been right on the edge of Mizuiro's capabilities. Now I was more than three times that distance away from him and he wasn't limited to just feeling my power. No, he could pick up my thoughts too! It was insane!

"_Stay. Out. Of. My. Head. _It's mine! My thoughts! I don't want you in them!" I hissed.

"I'm sorry, Arisawa-san," Mizuiro said. For what it was worth, he really sounded like he meant it.

"I have been working to close my mind off from everyone else's, I swear. But it's the middle of the night and I was worried. I won't do it again, I promise."

"You better not," I said, and I meant it.

Seriously, it was my fucking head! He did _not_ have my permission to go in there.

"Well, goodnight then," Mizuiro said quickly and hung up.

Guess I scared him a little.

"Shouldn't have been rooting around in there in the first place," I grumbled.

I dumped my dirty clothes into my laundry basket, turned off my lamp and crawled back into my bed for a few more hours of precious sleep before the sun came up.

And my phone went off again.

'_God damn it, if your house isn't on fire or something--!'_

"What?!" I snapped into the tiny receiver.

"You probably already know this, but I thought maybe you'd like to know anyway," Mizuiro said.

"Kojima, it is nearly four in the damn morning! _What is so damn important?!" _

"Nothing! It's just that you might want to know that Yoruichi-san is right next to you. Bye."

The click of the call ending was like the sound of a sword sliding loose to descend on my foolish, teenage neck.

"Interesting."

The throaty purr was right next to my ear. This of course implied that the rest of Yoruichi-sensei was right next to me, and moreover that he had done it without me noticing even a little bit.

There was simply no way that this could end well for me.

I tried to hide under my blanket, but his claws snagged the outer shell of my ear and yanked me back up. That hurt a lot, in case you couldn't guess.

"So, you snuck off in the middle of the night to destroy wildlife. I expected better of you, Arisawa," he said.

Okay, _that_ was low.

Kick me in the teeth while you're at it, would ya?

"Well, it worked –"

"Well, _nothing_. What you did was incredibly stupid, not to mention dangerous. Not only did you make yourself a target to any Hollows who felt your energy output, you brought Sado along with you. That isn't mentioning the fact that you almost blew this whole operation right into the Soul Society's face."

Huh?

"Did you really think such an enormous amount of spiritual energy would go unnoticed? If _I_ could feel you, then any nearby _Shinigami_ could as well. I won't even mention the alarms and surveillance equipment that the Society has scattered around the globe. You would have been tagged and followed, revealing the others along with yourself."

Oh, crap….

It made a sick kind of sense. Now that I thought about it, Yoruichi-sensei had never exactly told us how the Soul Society found Rukia to take her away. If she really was breaking the law, I doubted she was in constant contact with them and Karakura was a decent sized town. If they followed spiritual power, Ichigo would have been like blood in a tank full of sharks. And Rukia was with Ichigo.

Wow, I really _had_ nearly screwed us.

At least I hoped it was nearly….

"Did they?" I asked.

"No, they did not find you or Sado. I eliminated the residual _reiatsu_ and the surveillance equipment. By the time the patrol arrived, all they had to work with were several hungry Hollows."

Sweet relief swept through my body.

"However, if you pull a stunt like this again, they will be finding your remains," and here his claws really sank into my ear. "Are we clear?"

Uh, yeah that's pretty clear.

Though, honestly this was a lot lighter than I expected.

"Not like I'm complaining or anything, but how come you aren't totally killing me?"

"Well…"

The needles retracted into Yoruichi-sensei's paw and I was free. I sat up in my bed and stared at the big black cat that had become my drill instructor. He was staring at me, not in a bad way, but in the way a housewife stares at a fish she is considering purchasing for dinner. Would I be worth the effort?

"…I can't say I'm happy that you did something so stupid without asking me for my help first. Why not, Arisawa-san? Did you think I would say no if you requested extra practice?"

Anyone who has ever gotten into trouble and gotten caught afterward knows that this is one of the most guilt trip inducing questions ever. My mother used it on me when I was little. She asked it like she had done something wrong raising me, I would cry, and then I would make a promise never to do it again. I would break it within a week or two, but that's beside the point.

"Um, well, kind of."

He raised an eyebrow.

"Care to elaborate?"

"Well, you're like… you're…. You're Yoruichi-sensei," I said lamely.

He stared at me blankly and I continued to try and elaborate.

"It's like, you're already so good at this stuff. You beat up all those Hollows just know without breaking a sweat, you pulled the wool over Soul Society's eyes for me and Sado, you've been teaching us how to control something we probably would have needed years to learn on our own, if we ever learned at all, and you're… You're…."

My nails were digging into my coverlet.

"I want to help Ichigo. I really do. But the way I was…. There was no way I would have been able to. I had to get stronger. But I never asked you for help because you've already done your best to help us and for me to ask for more isn't really fair, because I should be getting this stuff after all this time. _Everyone_ else has, even Asano, and it was like watching them – "

"You didn't want to appear weak," Yoruichi-sensei said.

And strike me dead if that wasn't the best summary of what I had been trying to say.

I didn't say anything, but I suddenly felt very small.

My hands dropped down to rest on my thighs and my head hung down.

Yoruichi-sensei sighed and jumped onto my lap. He stared up at me with those shining yellow eyes of his and he started speaking very quietly to me.

"Arisawa, how old do you think I am?"

What?

"Um, I dunno," I said. "Thirty, maybe? I don't think more than fifty."

"Actually, I helped to control the massive influx of arriving souls in Soul Society during the Bakamatsu."

Okay, history quiz. The shogunate era ended about one hundred and forty years ago. That mean Yoruichi-sensei was at least that old. I tried to imagine that. Something in my brain fizzled out and died.

"Do you get it? Comparing yourself to me is like comparing an insect to a tiger. I have had hundreds of years to practice these arts, longer than you have even been alive. You won't surpass me within your lifetime Arisawa, not unless an absolute miracle happens, which I doubt.

"And about comparing yourself to your friends, does it really bother you so much that they are getting control before you?"

"I hate feeling useless," I whispered. "And seeing them gain their powers so quickly compared to me… it just made me feel pathetic."

"Well, now you sound pathetic."

Asshole.

"You can't be the best in everything, so don't even try. You're just setting yourself up for misery," Yoruichi-sensei said, matter-of-factly.

"However, you won't have to worry about your progress any longer, I promise you."

"Huh?"

He was grinning. I did not like that.

"Well, I can't leave a rambunctious student like you to run around unsupervised after what you did tonight, now can I? Rest assured Arisawa, we will be having plenty of opportunity to improve upon your abilities – as a matter of fact, I guarantee you won't be able to think of anything else!"

He leapt away from my lap and onto my nightstand. His eyes glowed fiercely in the dim moonlight from my window.

"Mostly because, if you don't, I promise you will be in a large amount of pain."

Wait, _what?!_

"Too much energy is bad if you don't have anything to do with it," Yoruichi-sensei said, and I could freaking _hear_ him grinning. "So, we'll be killing two birds with one stone. You get your remedial lessons and I get to punish you for this stupid stunt of yours. And it _was_ your idea Arisawa. I can't see Sado thinking this up."

What, did he think I was going to try to pin it on him? Fat chance of that.

"So, be happy Arisawa. You will be improving at a remarkable rate as of tomorrow. And if you don't, well…."

He jumped to my window, which I _know_ I had closed, but was now wide open. So that was how he had gotten in, the sneaky stalker.

"You won't be in any condition to follow Kurosaki into the Soul Society, so why worry?"

He actually smirked at me.

"Goodnight, Arisawa."

And he was gone, dropping out of my windowsill to the pavement below like a splash of ink.

I suppose it had been very naïve of me to think that I would get away scot-free. But hey, a girl can hope, right?

'_But this could be a good thing.'_

If Yoruichi-sensei really did get me stronger….

If I could survive whatever he threw at me for the next few days….

I left my bed and spent one second of my life to look at the dim moon.

'_Ichigo, I'll be coming after all._'

I shut my window and went to bed.

* * *

_Next time – Preparations for her departure take up most of Tatsuki's day. Soon after that, Yoruichi shows up for their first 'study session' and Tatsuki finds out just how fast she can dodge and just how important it is to be able to properly apply the brakes._

_I couldn't figure out Yoruichi's real age, so I just made up a number. Given that she was already an adult 100 years before the main storyline and a captain, I like to think that she has a few centuries behind her. _

_After receiving a review nagging me for an update, I got off my keester and punched this out. Everyone, say thank you to Kitsuru. _

_**NOW STOP POKING ME!**_


	10. Urahara

**Bleach and all of the things it incorporates are not mine. THEY ARE NOT MINE! So, nobody sue me.**

* * *

When I play with my cat, who knows whether she isn't amusing herself with me more than I am with her? – _Michel De Montaigne, __Essays__. _

* * *

Maybe I should just install a cat door.

…No. On second thought, Ururu would adopt every stray that wandered in. Tessai as well, more than likely.

I open the door and a small black creature walks in, exuding an almost visible aura of irritation. Dear me, I wonder who set Yoruichi-san off? I have not yet gotten a good feel for those kids, so it could have been any one of them. Still, the power that was kicking up a while ago seemed to remind more of Arisawa-san then the others. She is such a tiny thing, but I can't see any of those boys ever giving off a blood lust like that.

"Milk?" I offer.

"Of course," she replies.

She leaves my sight for the sitting room and I wander away to the kitchen. Milk is placed in a kettle on the stove (I really must get around to fixing the microwave one day) and the timer is set. I make sure to set the timer correctly this time. No one wants another incident like the 17th of May, 1980. I did not know that milk could be superheated to a liquid state that was capable of eating through plaster.

When the drink is ready, I find her already sitting on her favorite cushion in front of the table. She was never one for waiting. I suppose it is a side effect of using _shunpo_ so much. The world outside of it must seem so terribly slow.

The hot kettle sends slow curls of steam up from its mouth. I note that I will soon need a new hot pad for my table. I'm rather fond of this piece of furniture – it was made for me by a carpenter too poor to pay with cash back in, oh, 1947, I believe – and I don't want heat marks on its surface.

I pour the milk and we drink, me with considerably less enthusiasm than her. I don't particularly like milk. I still don't really know why she does. Every time I ask, she gives me this exasperated look and says, "If you have to ask, you're never going to know." I always respond, "Well _of course_ I won't know. You never tell me." And then she _glares_ and it always ends like that.

But we haven't had milk together for a long time. Not for… fifty-seven years, I believe. World War II had just ended, I was reopening a new shop after the firebombs had destroyed my old one, and she had swung around….

…Well, I suppose it doesn't really matter, does it?

"Something wrong?"

I blink and return to the present. She stares at me.

"Just remembering," I say. "We've been keeping quiet for so long, it seems odd to be getting ready to scream."

"Cold feet?"

Heat rushes through me and there is the bitter, copper scent of blood in the air, though it is not real. I can feel Benihime giggling. I smile, forcing my lips to stretch back until it hurts. Honestly, I'm not sure whether I'm grimacing or smiling. Maybe even snarling (though, it does feel rather good. Maybe that is why Yoruichi-san enjoys that form so much. It feels good).

"No, not at all."

"Good," she says. "I'd hate to have to pull down heaven on my own."

The fact that she would still give it a damn good go is unmentioned, but not unknown.

"Now, what is this about?" I ask.

"I'll be staying out late for the next few nights," she says. "Apparently, I've been given an overachiever."

"Oh? You mean that racket a little while ago?"

"It was the karate brat. Stupid kid damn near brought down the whole Gotei 13 on our heads. So, now I'll be busy beating that energy out of her with a big, iron stick. I'll help out with the gate as much as I can, but don't expect to see me for a while."

"Do you need any dampers?"

"No, I've already got some set up in that lot I've been having them practice in. I'll just keep her there until she has a handle on herself."

So, you think she can learn to repress her energy that quickly? Curiouser and curiouser. Or is it…

_Ah_! Oh my, indeed. Or is it that she'll _have_ to learn to repress her power that quickly? Dear me, Yoruichi-san. Please don't break her. I'd hate to have to explain that to Kurosaki-kun.

"How long do you think it will take?"

"She learns fast enough, I think. Already had her power more or less in hand by the time I got to the forest. Given the proper motivation, I should say… two nights, at most."

"Need any medical supplies?"

"No."

Her pink tongue takes another quick lap of steaming milk. Then her furry black face looks up at mine and, through the veil of whiskers and cat's eyes, I can see a very irritated _Shinigami_ commander.

My, my, Arisawa-san. Do you have any clue what you've gone and done?

"This operation has no room for weakness or incompetence. The brat needs to learn subtlety and she needs to learn it yesterday. I'm not going to coddle her, not one bit. Besides, I said I'd be _beating_ it out of her and I meant it. She woke me up at three in the morning - _three_ in the _fucking morning_, Kisuke! - to go for a run in the woods and haul her ass out of the fire she didn't even know she lit."

"And the other one?"

"I'll be having a few words with Sado-kun, as well," she says.

Ah, well.

What doesn't kill us, and all that.

They'll thank us for it when they're older.

Eventually.

"Just as long as you leave Kojima-kun alone," I say.

"He is, after all, still paying his bill."


	11. Page Finale

**_Bleach and all of the things it incorporates are not mine. THEY ARE NOT MINE! So, nobody sue me._**

* * *

It's only a lie if you get caught_. - Unknown_

* * *

**Day 6**

* * *

Alarm clock.

I hate mornings.

And, as I remembered what I planned to do today, I decided that I was really going to hate this morning.

"Well sensei, I have a good reason for ditching you and the team with the national tournament so close. You see, there's this girl, Rukia. Never heard of her? That's okay, I didn't expect you to. You see, there's actually a world of the dead filled with _Shinigami_ and…."

And….

"Hey mom! Good morning! Just wanted to let you know that I'm going to cross over to the afterlife next week, break into a prison that's probably guarded by a three-headed fire breathing dog and rescue my sort-of classmate because, hey, everyone else is doing it! Take care of my laundry while I'm gone?"

And let's not forget….

"Ichigo! Good to see you! Why am I following you? Well, I just wanted to let you know that I'm going after Rukia with you. What? You don't know what I'm talking about? Oh, don't be silly. Lying is bad, Ichigo. You know how I fell about liars, right? …You know how much I _hate_ liars, _right_? …You know how _very, very __**much**_ I hate being lied to, _RIGHT?!_"

Ah, well. Laying in bed wasn't going to get any of it done.

First thing was first, though. I had to call Orihime and let her know that I wasn't attending Yoruichi-sensei's practice session today. I did not want a talking cat to come looking for me when I was discussing something with my sensei or, god forbid, my mother.

Speaking of, I thought I'd better get her out of the way first. She could break it to dad (I hoped) and I'd only have to explain it to one of my parents. There's some inner muscle that start twitching in my chest every time I lie to my parents. That's not to say I don't lie to them, I do; I just don't like doing it. The strength of the muscle's contractions is directly related to how sweet and caring and honest and upright my parents are looking as I lie to them. I tried learning how to do this to other people once upon a time. This was back when I first joined the disciplinary committee and thought that maybe it would be better in the long run for the troublemakers to think of me as a motherly figure who was hurt by their actions rather than a psychotic pit bull who would tear a chunk out their asses if they did something stupid. That lasted about a day and then I decided, 'eh, fuck it'.

As always, she was already awake and cooking breakfast by the time I reached the kitchen.

Phase 1 of Tatsuki's evil plan, begin.

"Hey, mom. Can I talk to you?"

* * *

Okay, that actually wasn't so bad.

…What? You thought I was going to give you a full explanation of what I said to her? Forget that! There are some things that need to stay between family. Cutting it short, she thinks I'm going to Orihime's grandmother's house with Orihime. That's what 'hime-chan was using for an excuse and, hey, I figured it would work for me too.

Okay, next stop: the dojo.

Oh god, I don't wanna do this.

I worked my ass off training for this tournament. Now I had to blow it off with less than a week for sensei to find anyone to take my place. He's gonna hate my guts.

No. On second thought, he's gonna rip my guts out.

* * *

Okay, he _didn't_ rip my guts out.

Instead, he just gave me a flat, disgusted look that made them feel like they'd been turned to air. He also told me in no uncertain terms to stay away from the dojo for the rest of the month because, and I quote, 'the other students had to focus on their obligations.'

God, I'm _sorry_, okay? It ain't like I _want_ to skip out on the tournament. I just need to help my friends more than I need to prove how awesome I am. And I'll do better next year.

If he lets me enter next year, after this stunt.

I'm sorry sensei.

I'm really, _really_ sorry.

Please don't stay mad?

* * *

It was high noon by the time I was done.

I was… depressed by then. I was not moping. I'm Arisawa Tatsuki – I don't _mope_. But I was depressed, big time. I kept seeing sensei's face going slack when I'd told him that I was dropping out of the tournament. He looked at me like I had grown a second head. It was probably worse than that, actually. I could fight with a second head.

I'd broken my obligations to him and gone against my goal for the last two years. I'd finally gotten a slot in the _national tournament_ and I was giving up before I even entered the ring. No matter how much I told myself that helping the others was more important, that still fucking stung.

When I finally made my way back to the lot where Yoruichi-sensei was working with the others, I was still depressed. I wanted to crawl back into bed for the rest of the day, listen to Evanescence and slit my wrists. We are talking some serious, black-eyeliner-laced depression.

But hey, screw that.

I'd blown off the national tournament for this and I wasn't going to screw around.

They were hard at work in the empty lot near the end of Karakura's limits. Surprisingly, Mizuiro was not just sitting on the ground and repressing his energy. When I got there, he was staring down Orihime and I could feel little flicker-flares of energy sparking off of him. I spent a moment of my life wondering what the hell he was doing and then Tsubaki, who had been hovering around Orihime's shoulders, rocketed forward with a war cry.

We had all previously seen how little Orihime's attacks hurt any of us – the girl just plain _does not_ hurt people – so I wasn't really worried for Mizuiro. Just curious. What was up? He was just standing there, glaring impressively at the oncoming projectile with his teeth bared, his face red and a vein beating in his temple. Then, four feet from impact, Tsubaki veered off course so suddenly he had to have cracked his neck from whiplash.

'_Eh?'_

About the same time that Tsubaki crashed into the dirt, Mizuiro's face lost its intense look of concentration and he breathed out heavily. Orihime, meanwhile, was running over to check on Tsubaki. I don't know why. He was like a little cockroach – nuclear war wouldn't end his existence.

Still, what the heck?

"It was practice, Arisawa-san," Mizuiro called out to me.

I blinked and looked at him. Panting aside, Mizuiro looked happy. He was grinning that weird, psycho grin of his and his eyes had a kind of glow to them.

"We thought… Oops, hang on," Mizuiro said and then walked over the edge of the lot, where I saw his _seki-seki_ diadem laying on the dirt. He picked it up and slipped it back onto his head. Almost immediately, I felt his energy dim and fade away to nothing.

"Sorry for listening in," Mizuiro said. "It's harder to shut off than I thought after pulling it out like that."

"Whatever," I said, letting it slide this time. As long as it really _was_ an accident…. "What were you and Orihime-chan doing?"

"Trying something new," Orihime answered. "Kojima-kun's finally stopped hearing everyone's thoughts, so we thought maybe we could try something else today."

"I was thinking back to the first day we found out about these abilities of ours," Mizuiro was saying. "I remembered Flat-Edge and how it felt when I touched him. Like his mind and mine were one. So, I started wondering if I could use that. Make people think what I wanted them to think."

"Mind control?" I asked, more than slightly freaked out.

"Yes," Mizuiro answered. "I've been… um, I guess you could say, throwing my mind out at people today. Trying to make them do what I want. That's what Inoue-san and I were up to just now. She sent Tsubaki at me and I tried to make him stop."

"It doesn't work very well," Orihime said cheerfully, Tsubaki cuddled in her arms and moaning about 'the bells, the bells of Notre Dame'. "Tsubaki and I could feel Kojima-kun pushing and we pushed back. He had to shout to make Tsubaki crash."

"Still, it has potential," Yoruichi-sensei said as he padded over to our little group. "If you were to try _gently_ inserting thoughts instead of forcing them, that may work better. If someone were to believe it was their own idea, they would not fight against it."

"Noted," Mizuiro said lightly.

Until that moment, I had not wondered why Mizuiro was practicing his Jedi mind tricks. Then something went _click_ in my head and I grinned at him.

"You're coming with us!"

Mizuiro smiled. "I didn't get back to sleep last night after you woke me up. It bothered me that you did something so incredibly stu – "

I glared.

" – _risky_, risky, Arisawa-san, to help Ichigo. And then I decided that it was stupid of me to not go and help, when Kuchiki-san was in danger and you all were going to be in danger too. Even if it might kill me, I don't want to look back on my life and know that I let you all go without me."

"Kojima isn't much of a fighter, as I'm sure you can tell," Yoruichi-sensei said. "But having someone who can pluck information straight out of our enemies' minds is no small advantage."

"I'll do what I can," Mizuiro promised.

"And you," Yoruichi-sensei said at me, abruptly switching tracks and getting an annoyed tone in his voice. "What are you doing here? Inoue told me you wouldn't be coming."

"I had some stuff I needed to take care of before we left," I explained. "I didn't want anyone wondering where I'd gone. But that's all taken care of now and the day isn't over, so I figured I could still get some practice in before the sun went down."

"Then start practicing," Yoruichi-sensei ordered. "We're on a time limit and you've already wasted half the day running around Karakura. Hop to it, brat."

I guess he was still mad about my little forest escapade last night.

Oh well, don't worry about it. What was he gonna do, eat me? There were witnesses.

And speaking of….

"Where's Asano?" I asked.

If he tried sneaking up on me again, there would be consequences. Bad ones.

No one answered.

Puzzled, I stopped looking around the lot and brought my line of vision back around to Orihime and Mizuiro. Both of them were suddenly very interested in each other's shoes.

"He is no longer attending," Yoruichi-sensei said simply.

'_What?'_

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I mean, he is no longer attending," Yoruichi-sensei repeated. "He has control over his abilities now. Given that he has not agreed to go to the Soul Society, there is no reason for him to be here any longer."

Okay, for the record I knew that Keigo had never said he would go. I knew it. But I had thought, in the back of my mind, that he would go. Because everyone else was going (stupid as it sounds). Because Ichigo was going, no matter what. Because Keigo was Ichigo's friend. Because there was a chance, however slight, of Rukia being grateful enough for her rescue to give Keigo a date, something he would have happily jumped in front of a moving car for.

And now I had this – Keigo was not going.

Asano Keigo, wuss of all wusses, was not going.

Asano Keigo, wimp of all wimps, was not going.

There was nothing remotely surprising about the logic. Keigo was not a confronter. He would run away from a fight before he entered one. His powers had manifested themselves as such. Keigo would never go into danger if he could help it. The Soul Society would be a dangerous place.

I knew all of this.

And for some reason, I still felt very betrayed.

* * *

When the sun started setting, Yoruichi-sensei called it quits.

"Go home, sleep, get back here in the morning" were his exact words.

Everybody left.

Everybody, I should say, except for Yoruichi-sensei and myself.

I hadn't forgotten his promise/threat that he'd be giving me extra training. Now that I was already tired from using my abilities all day long, I was slightly less enthusiastic about it. Only slightly, though. I was still getting stronger and that was never a bad thing.

Even if Yoruichi-sensei did make it hurt like a bitch.

"Now then," Yoruichi-sensei said once the others had left. Orihime had offered to wait for me when she heard I was staying behind, but I declined. There was bound to be gratuitous violence in my near future and I didn't want anyone to see me get kicked around.

The black cat who owned my soul for the next few days stared up at me in the dying light. The lot we were in had an abandoned building to the left and an empty stretch of the road to the right. It was in the oldest, most rundown part of Karakura and, while it was good for privacy, those same qualities also made it really creepy when everyone else was gone because there were no other people within shouting distance.

"Are you ready, Arisawa-san?"

I grinned and rolled my shoulders to pop out a few kinks.

"Yeah, I'm good. So wha –"

I had no warning.

One second, Yoruichi-sensei was sitting on the ground a few feet away from me. The next second, he was rocketing toward me. Two paws slammed into my chest and sent me flying with a force that no earthly feline of that size could possibly posses.

For just a moment, I regretted Orihime's absence. She could have caught me on the first bounce. Then my pride kicked, followed closely by the old friend of mine, anger.

No way was I going down from the first hit!

I hit the ground on my back, but went with the motion and rolled. I came up on my knees and knuckles, grinding both into the rough dirt to try to stop my momentum. I could feel the burning where I was losing my skin. I was still sliding back when I jerked my neck up and saw a black streak rushing toward me from close to the ground. Reaction took over. I stopped fighting the pull that was dragging me back and I jumped with it, trying to evade the next hit even as I finally got going and dragged out my armor.

I didn't avoid Yoruichi-sensei's blow, naturally. God damn, but that furball can move. I _did_ manage to soften the damage considerably, however. What had taken me a few seconds last night now, with the constant practice the afternoon, took me only about two beats of my adrenaline soaked heart. It was still too slow, way too slow, but it was better then what it had been.

How do I describe this? Calling out my armor is just… weird. I can feel it now, if I focus. If I'm not caught up in the rush of a fight, I can take the time to feel it come out from wherever it goes when I don't need it. I don't know if it is just appearing from wherever or if it is actually coming out from inside of my body, but it leaks up from my skin like sweat and then starts spreading. A little puddle of metal touches another puddle and becomes a bigger puddle which joins with another puddle and so on and so forth, until I'm covered in the stuff. It's cool on my skin when it does this, before the numbness comes around. It feels like I'm sliding into water. Then it… I won't say _hardens_. It moves and breathes like my own skin, but it definitely toughens. My sense of touch goes down. It lessens pain from damage, but I can't feel anything else either.

The numbness sets in quickly. The love tap Yoruichi-sensei had given me made the air come rushing out of my chest, but it didn't really hurt. It was uncomfortable, but it didn't _hurt._ It was that lack of pain that let me breathe in again so quickly. No matter if there was actually some internal damage from the hit; as long as I was armored, I couldn't really feel it. There was a faint ache, a slight pounding, but there was no _pain_.

I came back down to the ground again, the force of Yoruichi-sensei's blow finally lessening.

When I landed, I landed on one foot, something that would have at least given me a broken ankle three weeks earlier. Now, I didn't feel any strain at all. I felt lighter, tougher. I landed and felt the pressure on the ball of my foot spread back to my heel as it came down, felt the tension in my calf as I bent my weight on my knee to absorb the leftover momentum of my fall.

But all of it was next to nothing at all and it was easy, so _easy_, to push forward with that one foot not a second after touching the ground and start my counterattack.

I could move in this form like I never could have before, except perhaps for my wildest dreams. It was easy, it was right. It was what I had been made for, built for, honed for. So easy, so natural it was to stretch my legs into a stride and careen off the ground in a wild, insane rush of speed that was nonetheless completely within my control. Breathing had never felt so wonderful. Cold rushes of oxygen were dragged down through my mouth, down through my throat and filled my lungs like cold dashes of ice water that gave me energy. The blur that was Yoruichi-sensei gained definition, becoming a swiftly moving black cat that I could follow with my eyes. Every speck of dust on his whiskers, every little individual piece of his fur. It was all clear to me.

It was a reaction to the speed. Whatever our powers were, however they took form, they were not designed without care. If I couldn't take in information as fast as my body moved, then all the speed in the world would only work against me. Whenever I changed, my senses would alter as well. Orihime had said that I looked like a superhero, because of the mask. I don't know why, but the armor didn't actually cover all of me. As it turns out, the back of my head and the lower half of my face are both left bare. Everything else is covered in something that Mizuiro compared to Hawk Girl's mask.

(I then had to ask Mizuiro who Hawk Girl was, which prompted him to stare at me as though I had just revealed myself to be a stone age Neanderthal in disguise. Did I miss something important there?)

It is sleek. It is streamlined. It lets me catch all the little details even when I'm moving at oh-my-god miles per hour. Also, as Orihime said, it makes me look like a superhero. I have yet to get a mirror and verify this, but I can take her word for it for a little while.

So, do I love this?

Oh, _fuck_ yeah.

I charged.

Eating up the distance between the two of us, I raced toward Yoruichi-sensei as fast as I could, loving the wind in my hair. There was, I know, a crazed grin on my face. I was _alive!_

When I was close enough, I jumped and hurtled over Yoruichi-sensei. I flew across the lot and twisted in midair, landing on the side of the abandoned building with a crunch. The wall beneath my feet buckled and became a miniature crater, but I was pushing off again and it didn't matter. I was behind Yoruichi-sensei now and he hadn't turned around yet.

That set off warning bells in my head. He was faster than that. I had the bruises to prove it. Even if it _looked_ like I was about to give him a swift kick in his furry black ass, I had the feeling that trying it would not end well and I listen to my instincts. No matter how much I enjoyed a good fight, no matter how good it felt to take a punch and get right back up to return it twofold, it is a _very stupid _fighter that does not listen to their instinct when it says something isn't right.

And I did not fight stupid.

The next time my foot touched the ground I kicked off sideways and hurtled to the right, veering sharply off course and coming to a sliding halt a dozen yards away from my teacher.

Who was fading away right before my eyes like a sunspot.

'_Whatthefu – '_

The attack came from behind.

Something collided with my middle back and set me flying forward. I didn't manage to regain control before I hit the ground this time. There was too much force behind the blow and I hadn't managed to evade any of it. I hit the ground, rolled a dozen times, got a mouthful of dirt and finally managed to stabilize myself on my back. My metal clad fingers were digging furrows into the ground, trying to stop my movement. It wasn't working very well.

Yoruichi-sensei made his second move when I was nearing the tarmac of the road. He stopped my slide pretty well. Unfortunately, he did this by dive-bombing me in the stomach. I would wonder how a ten-pound cat could hit me hard enough to do that, but I'd seen enough weird shit in the past week to stop caring. He could, he did and I didn't really need to know anything else. Except, perhaps, how to keep it from happening a second time.

Like I said before, I don't really feel pain when I wear the armor.

That does not mean I don't feel discomfort, damn it!

"First lesson," Yoruichi-sensei lectured from his space on my belly. "If you can't see your enemy, don't assume that they can't see you. In the same spirit, the enemy can blindside you just as well as you can them."

I hissed and swiped at his head, hoping to grab an ear and yank him off. He ducked, pushed off of me and left a double set of scratches on my face, one for each cheek.

"Second lesson – never attack without thinking. Reaction can save your life, but it is strategy that wins the fight. You might be _able_ to withstand a beating, Arisawa-san, but you shouldn't _have _to. Not if you play your cards right."

I rolled to my feet and jumped back, putting some distance between my body and his (for all the good it would do). I'd known Yoruichi-sensei was fast, but _motherfucker!_ My eyes had been able to track him, but my body couldn't keep up. Not good.

"Don't just stand there," Yoruichi-sensei said scathingly right before he began moving again. I had enough distance between us to just barely bring my arms up in a block before his tiny body banged against them and sent me skidding back. I didn't let him get away, though. If he was small enough and fast enough to ping around me like a pinball, then I just wouldn't let him. My hand shot out and grabbed his left rear leg just as he was bouncing off of me from that slam attack. We went flying back together, Yoruichi-sensei a partial victim of his own assault.

A hit was only as strong as the force you put behind it. Take that away and the danger goes down considerably. At his size, Yoruichi-sensei (I figured) must have needed to kick off pretty hard to smack me around like that. As strong as he may have been, I had more mass then him. Without anything for him to build his attacks off of, I had an advantage.

With that thought in mind, I hurled him into the air as his claws fruitlessly raked at my steel-coated skin for a grip, sending little sparks flying up everywhere. Leaning forward against my slide (I was getting used to that real quick), I jumped up as high and as hard as I could, my right fist pulled tight and close to my body for a punch. Yoruichi-sensei, spinning helplessly in midair, didn't have a chance.

…Yeah, it was too good be true.

I let my punch fly and a single inch before it would have connected with him, he somehow shifted his angle of movement _in midair_. I caught a flicker of power from beneath his paws, saw something in the air around him ripple, and then he was arcing over my head and falling down towards my back. I wasn't totally committed to the punch I had thrown – that would have been too boneheaded for words – but none of my contingency plans had factored in Yoruichi-sensei's surprising ability to walk on thin fucking air.

So I got hit in the back and ate dirt again.

My body might not have been hurt, but my pride sure was.

I mean, seriously. Dodging an attack _in midair?!_ God damn, man. Seriously.

Yoruichi-sensei landed on my back, but it wasn't an attack this time. I was aware of a faint pressure between my shoulder blades and then a set of whiskers tickled my right ear.

"Taking away my footing? Not bad, in theory. As I'm sure you just noticed, theory does not always mesh with practice."

Yeah, rub it in, why don't you?

I was getting tired and it was getting a little hard to breathe, but still….

'_Fun. Fun. FUN!' _

Sparring in the dojo was _nothing_ like this!

I rolled over violently, making Yoruichi-sensei jump to the ground. I did a kip-up to regain my footing and centered my weight.

He scratched his claws against the earth, readying them.

The sun was starting to fully set and the town was covered in purple and gray. My parents would be wondering where I was soon. Maybe Orihime would cover for me. Maybe not. I had forgotten to tell them I'd be staying out late. Right then, in that lot, I didn't care.

There was nothing, but the fight.

My face was bleeding from Yoruichi-sensei's scratches, my energy was low from the day's exertion and I hadn't eaten since breakfast, but I. Did. Not. Care.

Yoruichi-sensei moved and I moved and there was no time to worry about the Soul Society or Rukia or anything, but saving my hide and hurting Yoruichi-sensei's.

Even when the twilight left and true night came, I never wanted it to end.

* * *

_Next time – Festivals, fireworks and friends. This is summer vacation as it is meant to be and they might never get another, so make it a good one._

_After some thought and reading of my reviews, I realized this story had slowed to a crawl. Granted, I hadn't really been updating it regularly, but still. Four months between chapters ain't a good sign. I like this story, this brainchild of mine, and I don't want it to hit the discard pile. So I'm skipping ahead through Tatsuki's training up to the festival and, after that, the Soul Society arc. If I need to refer to anything that may have happened during Yoruichi's sessions, I can just use the good old flashback routine. _

_So, with any luck on my muse's part, this fic will be picking up soon. _

_And yes, Ichigo will pay. Dearly._


	12. Festival

**Bleach and all of the things it incorporates are not mine. THEY ARE NOT MINE! So, nobody sue me.**

* * *

The innocent and the beautiful have no enemy but time. – _W. B. Yeats_

* * *

**Day 10**

**Festival**

* * *

When I was little, my dad had told me stories at bedtime. They weren't the Disney brand ones, either. I grew up on Orochi and Susano, Oiwa, Okiku, Musashi, Benkei, the moon rabbit and Tomoe Gozen. Bloody, epic stuff. I had some awesome dreams after those stories, seriously.

There are a lot of times when I wonder if maybe those stories ever influenced my decisions in life. I got a lot of stuff out of them, after all. I couldn't put words to most of it until I was about ten years old, but I still knew what those things were, even if I didn't know how to say them. Kill the monsters, save the people who need saving, be loyal to your friends, honor and obey your teachers, never give up and always do the right thing, even if it hurts you. Basically, be a good person.

But, see, I never wanted to be _just_ a good person.

I wanted to be Susano. I wanted to be Tomoe. I wanted a challenge to prove how good I was. I wanted something that could make me work. I wanted to have a legend of my own.

I wanted an adventure.

And now, when I woke up for the first time in ten days without an alarm blaring next to my ear, I was one week away from finally getting one.

It was the day of the fireworks festival. I could, in the back of my mind, remember Orihime asking Rukia to come with us the day before she had disappeared. Maybe she would have. I could have shown her how to shove away the bigger people who were blocking your view. Orihime could have purchased a few ordinary meals from the stalls, mixed them together, created something unholy and then passively made us both eat it. It would have been fun.

But Rukia wasn't here.

She wasn't going to see Karakura's fireworks. She wasn't going to spend an absurd amount of money on cheap knock off toys from the booth people. She wasn't going to win a pet goldfish from a game of ring toss.

And that…

That was _really_ bothering me. I had only known her for a couple of months and I had recently learned that I really did not know her that well at all, but it still bothered me. Even if the connection had been minimal, it was still there. I hadn't felt it until then. There had been too much to do, but now the training was over. I didn't have anything to focus my mind on and it was wandering into places I didn't like.

Rukia wasn't where she should have been and I was starting to feel it.

The fireworks festival was usually the high point of summer for me, but I woke up that morning feeling strangely subdued.

Heroes don't get subdued, you see?

Heroes aren't supposed to get sad. Heroes save the day and make everything all right again.

But I was sad and, if there was one thing I had learned over the past two weeks, it was that I was no hero.

I was going to fight monsters, yeah. I was going to go save a captured girl, sure. But I was a girl curled in bed at nine in the morning, feeling a Rukia shaped hole in my world and wondering when the fuck it had appeared in the first place. I was hugging that sheet to my chest and wondering why, after ten whole days of getting by without feeling a wit of worry or sadness, I suddenly couldn't stop thinking of the girl who had lied to me for the better part of two months and whether or not she was even still alive for us to save.

Heroes don't do that.

So what the fuck was I turning into?

* * *

My depression had retreated to a tiny, huddling ball of misery in the corner of my mind by the time I left with my parents for the festival. Rukia's absence was noted, missed and filed away. I would think about it later. Right then, it was the best night of the whole season and I wanted to enjoy every bit of it.

I ran ahead of my family, letting them set their own pace to the festival grounds. On a night like this, I couldn't go slow. Sometimes I sprinted, sometimes I jogged, but my feet never carried me at anything below a trot. I vaulted over fences and jumped over gardens on my way to meet the others. By the time I arrived I had grit under my fingernails and a few splinters in my palms, but I felt great.

Orihime and Yasutora both live nearby me, so we had agreed to meet up beforehand. I had burned off some energy by then, so I was okay with walking the rest of the way. I was always in the front, though. Orihime had to ask me to slow down more than once.

All of the shops we passed were hanging closed signs on their doors. Everyone in Karakura goes to see the fireworks and I mean everyone. It's really the only town tradition we actually have. All of the people we passed in the streets were going in the same direction as us and so were the cars. With all the crowds, even before we reached the field, it was a wonder that we could see the rest of our group.

Or maybe not. Ichigo is A) very tall, B) very orange, and C) the single most vibrant power signal in the _entire freaking city_.

I can't believe Yoruichi-sensei called me out for _my_ power outburst.

Favoritism!

I didn't notice Mizuiro until I got through the crowd and into the little clearing of empty space around the two boys. The reason why is that he had finally gotten into the habit of keeping his energy completely repressed at all times. That was the only way he could keep from feeling and hearing the minds of everyone around him. It had slipped up a few times during our training sessions, but he was getting better about it very quickly. It was a good thing, too. I'd always felt that pain reinforced a lesson like nothing else, so I didn't pull my punches when he stumbled.

…What? I only broke a few of his bones. The guy's a fast learner.

Ichigo... felt different. He was still giving off a stupid amount of power, but it felt more natural now. Like something had been jamming it before and now the flow was free. It felt more… ready. That's the only thing I can call it. His energy felt calm.

Well, I'd fix that.

"Oh, hey guys. Tatsuki, what're y – _urk!_"

Tennis shoe to the stomach.

"_What was that foraaaaaaauuuuuuuuuuIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGH!" _

Tennis shoe to the groin.

Screams filled the air, like those of a little girl.

Knee to the face .

Stomp stomp stomp stomp _stomp stomp stomp_!

"Lying liar! I will make you squeal like the pig you are! You _lied!_ We could have died and you _lied_! We could have helped you and you _lied_! Rukia disappeared and you - "

* * *

"Tatsuki-chan?"

Orihime's voice snapped me out of my twisted daydream. I found myself standing next to the Onose river with everyone staring at me oddly. Everyone except Mizuiro, who had released his power just enough to see what was wrong with me. From the way he was trying to subtly put himself between Ichigo and me, I guess he was kind of freaked out.

Come on, it wasn't like I actually would have done it!

Honest.

"Tatsuki-chan, would you stop staring at Kurosaki-kun's throat please?"

"So, where's Keigo?" Ichigo asked.

"Uh… he's going to the festival later. I'm sure he'll catch up with us when we arrive," Mizuiro said lightly.

Okay, we were supposed to believe that _garbage_?!

Last year, Keigo had been the first of us to arrive and the last to leave. He loved watching the fireworks. Okay, maybe it was the girls who were watching the fireworks that he liked to look at, but still. No way he'd be late for this.

"What's he doing?" Ichigo asked. "Mizuho makin' him clean her room again?"

I wanted to ask who Mizuho was (his sister, maybe?), but Mizuiro beat me to the punch with his shallow enthusiasm.

"It's okay, he'll catch up! So, where do you want to go first? The fireworks don't start for a few more minutes."

"Food stalls!" Orihime yelled.

"Dart game," Yasutora said.

"Actually," I said, staring at Ichigo, "there are some things I wanna talk about with – "

"Well I'm hungry, so food it is! Let's go!"

With that, Mizuiro grabbed Ichigo's hand and dragged him off. More specifically, he dragged him away from me. What had been a nagging suspicion was now confirmed – Mizuiro was trying to keep me away from Ichigo and the confrontation I was wanting.

Feeling more than a little pissed off at the short bastard, I started after them, but stopped when I felt Orihime's hand wrap around my arm.

"Sado-kun, could you ask Kurosaki-kun and Kojima-kun to save some sweet stuff for us? Tatsuki-chan and I need to talk," Orihime said sweetly.

Uh oh.

Not being content with waiting for him to walk out of earshot, Orihime guided me down from the road to the river bank and we both sat down in the springy grass.

"Tatsuki-chan," Orihime said pleadingly, "I know you're mad at Kurosaki-kun for keeping you out of the loop, but would you please not go after him? I know you want to, but please don't."

"No," I said. "Orihime, there are some things I just can't forget and it would take a _really_ good explanation from him as to why he kept all of this from me for me to stop being angry at him."

Orihime blinked and gave me one her looks. It wasn't an angry look. It was an 'I am puzzling something out and I don't want to offend you with the solution' look. That was enough to get me on edge. Orihime doesn't usually think about what she says.

"Well…" she said slowly, "what if he had?"

There was a moment of silence when my brain went 'eh?'

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, what if Kurosaki-kun _had_ told you – told all of us – about all of what he's been going through lately? Would it have made any difference?"

"_Yes_, it would have made a difference!" I exclaimed.

"How?"

At that moment, I really kind of hated Orihime for being the voice of reason. One, because it showed just how _utterly messed up_ the universe had become lately. Two, because it only took me a few seconds to cycle through all of the scenarios that Ichigo telling me about his night job could produce and come to the conclusion that it probably _wouldn't_ have made a difference.

Most likely, I would have laughed about his stupid stories.

In the event that he got really determined and shoved his _Shinigami_ status in my face, then what? My powers (hell, all of ours) had not come out until after a great deal of prolonged contact to Ichigo's and even then not until we'd been pushed to the brink of death. So, what the hell _could_ I have done to help him?

If he had told me, I had believed and I had recognized that fact, then I would have done nothing but worry about him, worry about the rest of us possibly getting caught up in one of his fights and bitched about my own uselessness.

Do you know what tunnel vision is? It's when you get so focused on one thing, you can't see the things relating to it nearby. You know, like going through a tunnel. All you can see is the exit.

Case in point – me being so set on making Ichigo suffer for my suffering that I had not taken the time to really _think _about whether or not he actually deserved it.

And here is what I was coming up with people.

He didn't.

If it had been me, I wouldn't have wanted my friends or my family anywhere near the trouble I was dealing with. Granted, he screwed that up a number of times, but still. I knew Ichigo really well and he was the kind of guy to keep his problems to himself. Given that I was the same way, I understood that.

The logical conclusion was reached, that being that Ichigo did not deserve to be shoved head first into a garbage disposal unit, and I was feeling both slightly ashamed at myself and very amazed at Orihime's insightfulness.

I sometimes forget just how smart she really is. She acts like a goof a lot of the time, but I know better. It's just really easy to forget that there is more to her. That goofy act that she puts on makes it really hard to keep yourself on guard around her. It's like holding a fortress against an invasion of starfish. You can do it for as long as you want, yeah, but sooner or later you start feeling really stupid about it. Then, when you open up, she sees everything about you, right down to the quick.

"Ugh," I moaned.

I was still mad at Ichigo. Don't call me a hypocrite. Logic may have dictated that I had no reason to be, but logic and emotion don't work very well together. I was still mad at him. However….

"I won't do anything to him tonight and I promise I won't hit him," I said.

Orihime bit her lip. "Tasuki-chan, what about – "

"Look, I'm still angry at him, okay? I might not have any good reason to be, but I am. I'll work it out on my own somehow, so just leave it alone."

"…Tatsuki-chan, how come you're so mad at Kurosaki-kun? He wasn't… trying to be mean."

"I know," I sighed, running a hand through my messy hair. "I… I think I'm more mad at the situation than him. I couldn't really have helped him and he knew it. I think that's why I'm mad. I don't like being helpless."

There was a minute of silence. The dragonflies hummed around us and the setting sun turned the river to molten gold. It made my eyes water, but it was still pretty. The people on the road behind us began to thin out as the last of the stragglers made their way to the field where the stalls were being set up. For a little while, it was like Orihime and I were the only people in the world.

"You shouldn't feel that way," Orihime finally said.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because you're strong," she said. "You always have been, even before all of this started. Maybe not as good of a fighter as you are now, but you've never been afraid. You never run away or stop or cry. Every time I saw you get pushed to the ground, I always knew you'd get right back up again to keep going. That's being strong, Tatsuki-chan."

There are times when you really can't think of anything to say.

And when I heard Orihime say she had _never even once_ viewed me as anything less than tough, I knew that moment on the river was one of them.

But not long after came a rush of memories – Sora's attack, the Hollow at our school, the training sessions that bordered on attempted murder just to give me an _idea_ of what fighting a _Shinigami_ would be like – and I was wondering what in the hell Orihime thought she knew about me if she thought I was never afraid.

I was good at repressing it, good at forgetting it, but the fear was there. When I stared at the fifteen year old girl covered in golden sunlight, I was suddenly reminded of how very _breakable_ we all were. If even one of us didn't come back from it, it would kill something in all of us.

At 8:37 on August 1st, with the last rays of the sun descending on what could have been my last summer vacation, I heard the fireworks beginning to go off overhead, but I had no desire to leave the river and get lost in the crowds of faceless people and nameless stalls. I had no wish to leave the sight of my best friend looking young and happy and alive, like she should.

But the others were waiting and I didn't want to ruin this night for them either.

So we stood up and started toward the festival.

"…Orihime?"

"Hm?"

"Just…."

"….."

"Just… stay where I can see you tonight, okay?"

"…Okay, Tatsuki-chan."

* * *

The rest of the night passed by me in a blur of cotton candy and screaming little girls. Ichigo's family had shown up not long after the boys had left us and I would swear his dad was trying to cram all the humiliation he couldn't give Ichigo for the last ten days into this one night.

For starters, he was dead drunk even before the fireworks started. Apparently his green grocer had been giving out hard fruit juice. Then he had to ruin the nice gesture of saving seats for us by standing up and drawing an obscene kind of attention by shouting that the fireworks last were _much_ better and whoever came up with this year's plan should get on a train to Ryushima and never come back. Then he tried to rob one of the stalls when Karin wasn't able to win the toy she wanted from the ring toss game. He somehow managed to convince Yasutora to distract the stall owner (I suspect he bribed the big guy with a promise of stealing a stuffed toy for him, as well) and then he climbed into the back of the stall and began piling cheaply made plushies into his arms. He almost got away with it, but Ichigo stopped him. Then we all had to run away when the stall owner called for security.

If nothing else, it gave me a fresh appreciation for my dad being nice and boringly normal.

Things calmed down after that, mostly because Ichigo made sure his father was always within immediate grabbing distance after the stall incident. We spent a lot of money on overpriced food, failed horribly at winning Frisbees in the air-gun booth and did our best to be stupid teenagers on a night out.

Only once did the mood falter. He must have been pretty into the girls he was looking at, because Keigo didn't even notice us until we nearly ran him over (the security guards were still after us at the time). As it was, we sent him leaping for cover as we barreled past. When we finally lost the rent-a-cops, Mizuiro said he was going back to try and get Keigo to join us. Not more than a few minutes later, I felt Keigo's steady aura of energy vanish when he pulled his disappearing act. Mizuiro came back to us shortly afterward, wearing that fake grin on his face, and said that Keigo had decided to not come along with him.

Translation: he ran away like a little girl.

Well, whatever. If Keigo couldn't man up to his decision to leave us without him, that was his problem. It didn't irritate me. Nope, not one bit.

The party started winding down after midnight. We said our goodbyes and I last saw Ichigo carrying his little sisters home on his back. It was one of the very rare chances I got to associate him with the word 'cute'. Mizuiro went off on his own, saying he had a ride waiting for him. Chad went with us as far as Uzumaki Street and then turned toward his own home.

Orihime was still living in the hotel, her apartment technically not her own at the moment. Something about the latest payment from her relatives getting messed up. I had offered to let her stay at my house, but she didn't want to. I don't know why not; my cable was better and I didn't have to pay for room service.

This left me wandering through the dark streets, vaguely aware that I had promised my folks that I would meet up with them to walk back and equally vaguely aware that it didn't matter. I shattered a cinderblock in front of them when I was nine. They knew I could take care of myself.

I could still taste fried ice cream in my mouth and I scrubbed my tongue against my teeth to get more of it.

Supposedly, when a prisoner is faced with his execution date, he is given one last cigarette.

I guessed that this night was ours.

I wondered what Rukia got.

_

* * *

_

Next time – Preparations are over and it's time to leave. Now, if only Tatsuki's mom doesn't come into her room before she gets back and cleans all of that creepy blood off….


	13. Squire 1

**Bleach and all of the things it incorporates are not mine. THEY ARE NOT MINE! So, nobody sue me.**

* * *

Fear is a _great_ motivator. –_ John Treacy, 1984 Olympic silver medalist._

* * *

Urahara Kisuke is fucking daffy.

My reason for saying this?

_That cockbite __**trashed**__ my room! _

I'm serious! I opened my window at 1:00 a.m. just like he told me to and a big balloon filled with red paint came flying into my room and splattered all over my wall. It got _everywhere_ and then it started spelling out a message for me. I spent ten minutes frantically trying to scrub it off with soap and a washcloth before giving up and changing out of my pajamas. God, I hoped this was one of those things ordinary people couldn't see or my mother was going to have a hernia.

I scribbled a note saying that I had left to catch the bus with Orihime. When morning came (if luck was with me) they wouldn't get suspicious and try to track down Orihime's grandmother. If they did, I was very much screwed, because she wouldn't have any idea of where Orihime or I had gone. When I started running out towards Urahara's shop, I felt… something. A small ticking in my chest that wouldn't go away and jumped when I turned around to look back at my house, where my parents were asleep. It felt like someone was pinching my heart.

'_Cholesterol? Oh well, I'll cut back on the fast food when I get back_.'

I could feel my friends starting to converge. Ichigo, blazing away like a miniature sun. Orihime, a gentle presence like a fresh breeze. Yasutora, strong and steady. Mizuiro, so tightly focused that I almost missed him, just letting the barest fraction of his power out.

I could feel them gathering together and stopping before I arrived (god _damn_ Urahara and his twisted mind). Hell, even Uryuu was there! His aura flared up not long after Ichigo and Orihime arrived to join with Yasutora and Mizuiro. The jerk had been hiding to surprise us. At least, that's what I thought. Maybe he had just made a habit out of keeping himself out of sight? That was actually a pretty good idea….

'_He said he wanted to get back at the Shinigami for something they did to him. He might be going with us, but is he going to help us with our fight?' _

Any help was help, I figured. It would also be nice to have another person with experience in the weird along for the ride. I still didn't understand even half the stuff Yoruichi-sensei lectured me on.

I skidded to halt in front of the shop just as Urahara stepped out of its doors.

"You aren't leaving without me!" I yelled.

"Arisawa-san, we wouldn't dream of it!" Urahara said happily. Like he hadn't just splattered paint all over my room. Or maybe he was smiling because he had, the crazy old fruitcake.

"Well, the gang's all here," Urahara said happily. "Won't you please come inside? I'll begin telling you all how I'm going to get you into the Soul Society. Oh, and please, pay attention. Otherwise…."

Urahara had been moving back into the shop, but when he said those words he stopped. He turned his stubbled face back to us from within the shop doorway and he _smiled_.

"… _you won't get there __**alive**__." _

The man would have made a killing as a motivational speaker.

After that rousing speech, we were all on pins and needles as he led us into his store. There's nothing quite like the threat of imminent death to make you pay attention.

I didn't see Tessai or the kids anywhere. Yoruichi-sensei wasn't around either. He'd said he was coming with us, hadn't he? There was suddenly a cold feeling in my stomach. Not fear, just… unease. Knowing he had been coming with us had given me a lot of confidence, but if he wasn't….

…Well….

…Well, whatever. Rukia still needed saving and Ichigo wasn't going to do it himself. Whatever happened, happened.

'_But he's coming, right?' _

I hadn't really thought about how we were going to leave this world. I figured maybe Urahara had a gateway or something like that hidden in one of his closets (it wouldn't have surprised me). Instead, he took us down beneath his shop and into something that could have been bigger than a baseball stadium.

Alongside the big question of 'HOW?!' was the idle wonder of how he was paying for all the electricity needed to light it up.

Note to self: it pays to be a mysterious psychotic.

I did wonder why he didn't install an elevator. That ladder was… unpleasant, even if I would probably have survived the fall at that point. As it was, I nearly did fall when Mizuiro froze up beneath me for a few seconds. I almost stepped on his hands, scrambled around trying to find a place where he wasn't, had Ichigo step on _my_ hands, saw Orihime nearly kicked Ichigo's head in and there was a moment when we were all ready to topple to the ground.

"Why'd you stop?!" Ichigo hollered down. Orihime's shoe print was tattooed on his forehead, so I couldn't blame him for being annoyed.

One rung below me, Mizuiro looked as confused as I'd ever seen him.

"I thought I… I mean, I felt a…. Uh, you know what? Never mind."

There weren't any more incidents after that. We all got off the ladder safely and I have to admit, I was pretty impressed with what I saw. I could have spent days exploring that place. I think Orihime was too, because she started gushing over it and nearly moved Tessai to tears. He and the kids had been down there waiting for us. Once Orihime said that she thought the place was amazing, Tessai was deeply touched, so I'm thinking he had a hand in building it. Then again, he works for Urahara, so maybe he's just weird like his boss. I'm not discounting this possibility.

"Attention! Attention kiddies!"

What is this, day care?

Urahara was standing a few dozen feet away from us and waving to get our attention. He was smiling and I knew something strange was going to happen.

I was proven right when he chirped a jolly "And away we go!" right as he snapped his fingers. I felt a small surge of power _flare_ –

- and then the ground shook slightly as four clouds of dust exploded in the distance –

- and four objects, moving so fast that my unarmored eyes only saw blurs, came together behind Urahara hard and fast enough to crash together and make my ears smart. The collision made me flinch and when I could look again I saw something that had not been there before.

It was a flat, hollow square. I could see thin lines near each corner and I realized that the things I had seen were the four separate sides of the thing. They had joined together only just then to form the square. It was huge, easily three times as tall as Urahara and just as wide. From the sound and strength that the crash had possessed, I would have thought it was made of rock, but the only thing I could see was countless sheets of paper. Maybe they were covering the rock or metal beneath them? Or maybe not. Maybe Urahara had done something to make the sheets of paper more than what the earth could give.

"All right," Urahara said cheerfully. He may as well have been at a carnival with some cotton candy and not ten feet away from a massive structure that could topple over and crush him.

"This is what is going to take you all to the Soul Society. It's called the _senkeimon_, or the tunnel world gate. Now, please listen carefully because I'm going to tell you how to pass through this gate without dying."

I was starting to think that he liked scaring us.

"This gate," he pointed at the square shaped thing behind him, "has a _reishi henkan-ki_ – a spirit particle conversion machine – on the top of it. The two are attached by covering the gate with _ketsugo-fu_, or union tags."

It was a measure of how weird my summer had become that I actually understood a bit of that. The square was a gate that had a spirit converter on top of it and it would convert us (our spirits?) into something else. At least, that's what I thought he meant….

I was staring at the gate while I thought this and so missed what Mizuiro later described as 'the funniest moment of the whole hour' when Urahara punted Ichigo out of his own body. He'd just taken that pimp cane of his and knocked Ichigo flying, with his spirit going one way and his physical body hitting the ground.

There was some slight method to this madness. Ichigo was now one of Urahara's demonstration props.

Ignoring the carrot-top's angry shouting, Urahara happily pointed at my oldest friend as an example.

"The Soul Society is a world of spirits. Therefore, you cannot enter it without being spirits yourselves. However, Kurosaki-kun here is the only able to leave his body and become a Soul Reaper. The rest of you still retain your physical forms when you draw out your powers."

Yeah, and what was _up_ with that? Uryuu was a Quincy, so apparently that was normal for him, but none of the rest of us had any weird family history worth mentioning. Yoruichi-sensei had never mentioned anything like what had happened to us happening before and I'm pretty sure he would have if he'd heard of it. So, unless he was wrong and there was a precedent, we were a huge, glaring statistical anomaly: living humans with _Shinigami_-level spiritual abilities that had manifested in spite of our physical bodies. The norm was supposed to just be low-level awareness, like seeing spirits and getting vibes from objects. You weren't supposed to be able to draw that power out into an external form before you were dead and you _definitely_ weren't supposed to be able to do it to the point where it was strong enough to bash and smash a Hollow. Was all of it really Ichigo and Rukia's doing? I hadn't heard of his father or sisters getting any weird powers, so what if it was something else?

And Urahara was still talking. Get back on track here, Tatsuki.

"…comes in! It converts the physical matter of this world – the _kishi_ – into the spiritual matter of the next world – the _reishi_, which is what your spirits are built out of."

"So, you're saying that if we simply walk through this gate…" Uryuu asked his half-question, but it didn't really sound like a question. He knew more of what Urahara was saying then I did, it seemed.

"Exactly! You can enter the Soul Society looking just as you do now!"

Ichigo, in his _Shinigami_ finest, was striding toward the gate. "Okay, I got it. Let's go - _augh!_"

In a surprising show of dexterity, Urahara's cane slammed into Ichigo's side and knocked him away.

"There's just one problem worth mentioning," Urahara said cheerfully, paying no mind to Ichigo's low moans and curses. I didn't blame him for the moans, either; I'd heard something go snap.

…Wait.

Why was Yasutora holding a stuffed toy?

…_Why was the stuffed toy moving?! _

Three quick strides got me over to Yasutora, while one ear stayed tuned in to Urahara's warnings (when that creep says beware, _you listen_).

"What _is_ that?!" I exclaimed.

"Cute," Yasutora mumbled.

"His name is Kon," Mizuiro said cheerfully. "It's short for _kaizo konpaku_, or mod soul! He's been running around in Ichigo's body for a while now whenever Ichigo needed to go out and do his Soul Reaper duties."

And the toy talked back to him.

The. Toy. Talked.

"H-How do you know that?"

Mizuiro _smiled_.

"Kon-san, _I-know-everything." _

For maximum creepiness, this should be said a sing-song, happy voice with an empty, sociopathic gleam in one's eyes.

The toy – Kon – didn't shut up, so much as he, it, whatever, withdrew into his stuffing like a turtle into its shell.

Mizuiro hummed in creepy-teen approval and stepped away to walk towards the gate.

Yeah, that telepathy thing of his? It hasn't gotten any less weird.

Then I felt a subtle, controlled presence right next to me and that twisting feeling in my stomach that had started when I entered the shop vanished just like that.

"Go forward."

It was amazing, seriously, just how much more confident I felt when I heard his voice. Orihime apparently agreed.

"Yoruichi-san!"

The black cat that had systematically beaten weakness out of me for the past few days was quietly padding towards Urahara. It was strange how hard it was for me to sense his presence, even then. He had so much power within him that he made me look like a weakling by comparison, but he had such incredible, effortless control over how much he let out of him that I never knew he was around until he wanted me to know.

"Didn't I tell you? The heart and soul are connected. The state of the heart is crucial. It is the will to go forward that will be your guide."

'_Go forward and don't give up, huh?' _

"Have no doubt. Have no fear."

'_Doubt is for when you've already lost and fear never stopped me before.' _

"Do not stop. Do not look back. Do not think of those who you are leaving behind," Yoruichi-sensei said.

"Just _go forward_."

Even while I'd been poking at Kon (figuratively, of course) I had heard every word Urahara had said. Four minutes to get through the tunnel or we'd be trapped forever. Four minutes from start to finish, and even that wasn't a guarantee. He had said four minutes – _at most_.

"Those who can do that will follow me," Yoruichi-sensei said. What I heard behind those words – what everyone heard – was, _and __**only **__those who can do that._

Could I really do it?

Could I trust my life to random chance and Urahara's skill with otherworldly technology? Could I risk never growing older, never seeing my parents again? Could I step through that gate with the understanding that it might be the last thing I ever saw on this Earth?

Sure, if I had a good reason to.

Could I do it to save Rukia, who I had never really known?

Probably not.

Could I do it to pay back Orihime's life, Ichigo's life, my life, the gift of powers that I had come to love over only a few days, the knowledge of a whole other world out there, a greater purpose to my fighting, an understanding of why Ichigo had been pulling away from me and the others, and a future that suddenly seemed so wondrously blank?

Without a doubt.

Intentionally or not, she had helped me. She had helped me, helped my friends, helped my whole town, and now her people wanted to execute her for it. I didn't know their laws and I wouldn't have cared if I had. I punished people if I thought they deserved it, but every voice of fairness and justice that I had tried to build up over the years were all screaming in unison that what Rukia was getting was not fair.

Her life for ours?

It wasn't fucking _fair!_

I could feel my jaw clenching, I could _feel_ that bubbling heat in my stomach that only came with anger. It wasn't right, none of it.

I was going to get her out of that.

"You are preaching to the choir, you know that?"

Ichigo. He looked like I felt.

And the others….

Yasutora had never seemed so imposing before. He's so quiet, so still, that sometimes you just forget he's there. Now, I could see every one of his muscles, could practically feel the weight of him bearing down on me.

Uryuu's eyes were focused, almost painful so. If I tossed a rock through his line of vision, I wouldn't have been surprised to see it explode. He'd been using a bow when I'd last seen him, right? Well, now he looked like he was lining up a killing shot.

Mizuiro was as calm as ever, but there was a frightening intensity in his face now. It was like he was a completely different person. He'd always been a laid back and cheerful guy, if slightly distant. Now there was a fire in his eyes like I'd never seen before, and if he didn't know what he could do with it, he looked like he was willing to face anything to find out.

Orihime, who I had once seen moan over someone's discarded candy wrapper ("It was so cheerful and they just threw it on the ground!"), was staring at the gate with steely determination on her face. Whether she was going more for Ichigo or Rukia, I couldn't say, but I knew her well enough to know that she'd never back down while either one needed her.

Were _those_ the faces of people who were not sure?

'_Bring it on. We'll take whatever comes and give it back twice over.' _

"The moment we came here all of our minds were made up!" Ichigo declared.

He was right. It was finally settling in on me just what we about to do, but I wasn't going anywhere except through that gate.

Who wants to live forever, anyway?

Yoruichi-sensei had stopped in front of the _senkeimon_ and turned to Ichigo with one of those lidded looks that I had gotten so often. There were multiple meanings behind them, but I was pretty sure that one meant 'hang on to your optimism.'

"Just so you understand, boy…. If you lose, you will _never_ return to this world," Yoruichi-sensei said.

"Then I'll have to win," Ichigo said.

"We _will_ win," I hissed. Failure? Never!

"Exactly," Yoruichi-sensei said.

That was that. We were going. Urahara and Tessai took up positions on either side of the gate and knelt down. I could see small, round, shiny patches where they set their hands. They were sections of the gate that had no union tags on them. Why?

We lined up in front of the gate. Orihime and Yasutora were on either side of me, Uryuu and Mizuiro behind us, Yoruichi-sensei and Ichigo in the front. Ichigo looked like he was ready to plow through anything if meant reaching the other side. Their forms, their presence, steadied me and gave a bit more order to my racing mind.

We were really doing it.

We were going to the land of the dead.

There was a twin surge of power coming from Urahara and Tessai, each at the exact same moment. It started small and then grew. A light formed in the center of the square gate. It was just a spark at first, but as the flow of energy increased, so did it.

Then, for some reason I couldn't see, Urahara and Tessai stopped holding back.

The light exploded like the fireworks of the festival and it gave a loud blast of noise that was just as violent. I cried out and threw up a hand to shield my eyes, but I wasn't the only one.

"Everybody ready?" Urahara yelled. He _had_ to yell for his voice to reach us. There was a great deal of noise coming from the gate and it was only getting louder. It was like standing in the subway tunnel with a train on the way.

"As soon as the _senkeimon_ opens, run straight through! Don't stop for anything!"

I knew that, we all knew that already, but the flicker of annoyance that danced up was squashed when I got a quick look at Urahara's face beyond the searing light and the reason why he was repeating himself became clear. He was scared as well.

"Got it," I head heard Ichigo say, or thought I did.

There was a horrible moment of doubt. Urahara, the guy who had built what was going to transport us, wasn't sure of what we were doing. If he wasn't sure, then –

"Good luck," Urahara yelled, and then the power coming from he and Tessa _soared! _

It was as though lightning had struck through the shop to reach us. Blinding light that I couldn't bear, noise that was enough to make my ears bleed, stale wind rushing at me from the opening that had appeared and a terrible, flat sort of heat that rode along with it. For a moment, I couldn't breathe. There was a great pressure all around me and it squeezed like a vise.

'_God what is this what is it_?'

Then we were running, all of us.

Four minutes and counting.

Unsurprisingly, Ichigo and Yoruichi were first through the gate. I didn't actually see them go through, but they were ahead of me when I jumped over the threshold and my eyes finally got adjusted to the point where I could see again. I didn't like what I saw.

The tunnel was hell, pure and simple. It was muggy and hot like a summer day in a swamp, but there was a _staleness_ to it. As hot as the air was, it tasted flat. There was wind, but I didn't see how there could be. It was just there, tugging at my hair and clothes. The ground was soft and sucked at my shoes, but each step had things like dry twigs cracking under my feet. I couldn't see very well in the gloom that came after the light show departed, but I don't think I would have liked to even if I could have. Much later, when we out of the tunnel, it occurred to me that those dry, snapping things could have been bones. Tall walls that looked wet and organic oozed a black mist that poured down like water. It stopped before it reached us like it was hitting a barrier of some kind, maybe formed by the _senkeimon_ behind us. The part that stayed fog free was slightly brighter and shot straight of ahead of us. At the end of the path, so very far away, was a bright point of light.

That was our way out.

I crashed through the gate and almost stumbled when I landed on that weird, soft path. Then I found my footing and pushed off as hard as I could, breaking into a flat out sprint that burned my muscles. Orihime was right behind me.

I heard thumps from behind, signs that Mizuiro, Uryuu and Yasutora had made it through. Then the light from behind abruptly grew dimmer and the noise grew louder. It sounded like an avalanche. Was the doorway behind us closing? It didn't matter. We had to go forward. I didn't look back. Run faster. _Run_.

"The… _The walls are collapsing!_ They're crumbling behind us!"

%#$#%# Uryuu! You can't run fast while you're looking backwards! Stupid nerd! Quit gawking and run! Run!

"Don't look back – _run!_" Yourichi-sensei shouted. "If the _koryu_ swallows us, we're done for!"

Yes, you see?! Listen to the cat!

Oh, crap. The walls were collapsing behind us. No one had ever really talked about how we were getting back, either. There had been something about Urahara opening a gateway at a set time and place, and I'd heard Yoruichi-sensei mutter something about stealing butterflies if it came down to it, but that made no sense, then again, nothing did anymore, so why _the fuck was I __**thinking**_ you don't need to _think_ to _run_, Tatsuki, you moron!

We ran.

Ryo wouldn't have been able to keep up with us if she had tried. There is nothing quite like mortal fear to move your legs. It wasn't death or pain that scared me. It was the thought of dying in _that_ place, in that disgusting, horrible, bleak place, that made me run faster. I couldn't bear it.

Four minutes. How long had we been running? I couldn't tell you. It was long enough that the adrenaline didn't quite cover up the sharp stitch in my side any longer. It was long enough for Orihime to stumble once and make me curse and drag her along for a few seconds until she found her footing again. The light at the end of tunnel grew closer, but slowly. So very, very slowly.

Then Uryuu screamed.

I didn't quite stop running, even then. I turned my head, I slowed down a little, but I didn't stop. I'm not sure I could have, not just like that. Then I saw why he had screamed and that was enough to make me stop.

Uryuu must have gotten too close to the collapsing walls behind us. Something – a hand or a claw made out of that bizarre, creepy black smoke – had grabbed part of his white cape. A rather small, sadistic and hysterical part of me thought that it served him right for wearing such a ridiculous getup.

Things fell apart for a moment. Mizuiro reached Uryuu and tried to haul him back, but he wasn't strong enough. Ichigo made to turn around and cut Uryuu loose with that gigantic kitchen knife hanging off of his back. Yoruichi-sensei stopped him and there was so much noise and chaos that I don't know what he said to do it. I called the armor to rip Uryuu loose or tear his clothes or help Mizuiro pull or _something_, the whole goddamn situation giving me enough anger to do it – _stupid Ishida what were you thinking wearing something as lame as that it has handholds everywhere you're slowing us down and I want out of this damn place yesterday _– and of course that was when Keigo popped up out of nowhere with a hand on Uryuu's shirt and started throwing his weight in with Mizuiro's.

What the fuck, seriously.

I think that would have thrown anybody but Yasutora, who was thankfully the other person close enough to reach Uryuu in time. The big guy grabbed Uryuu with one hand, the cape with his other and _pulled_. Combined with Keigo and Mizuiro's efforts, the troublesome garment came loose and Uryuu was free.

That was all I needed to see. My armor was on and if anyone thought I was fast before, well, they were going to see something fabulous now. I turned on my heel and started sprinting, the light ahead of me now growing closer fast enough to make my spirit leap. _I was getting out of there! _

And then, '_Oh crap, the others!_'

I couldn't exactly bring them with me.

I skidded to a halt, the ground piling up around my feet. The doorway was right there, not five paces away from me. It might as well have been unreachable because right then I knew without a doubt that I was never going to go through until the others were with me to do it.

I turned around.

Right behind them was a looming wall with a single bright light that seemed not so much to fall on them, as to seek them out. It looked like a freight train was coming after them. A very, _extremely_ big freight train.

"_RUN!"_ I screamed. _"RUN FASTER!" _

I couldn't see Yourichi-sensei anymore. Between his size, the dim lighting and the distance, he was invisible. Ichigo's bright hair lowered as he levered himself into a dash that made his previous run look like a Sunday stroll and Orihime was only slightly behind him. Yasutora had a white shape – Uryuu – draped over his right shoulder, but he wasn't far behind the two orange-heads. Keigo and Mizuiro were practically attached to each other as they ran and I couldn't tell who was helping who.

I don't even know if they heard me. The noise that thing made was horrible, like a building falling down without end. That might have been what clued them in on the need to pick up the already crazy pace.

But they weren't gonna make it.

I could see it as they drew nearer. As fast as they were going, they would be crushed before they reached me and the gateway.

They weren't gonna make it.

The knowledge of their imminent deaths did not make it easier to understand why Orihime suddenly _stopped running_ and turned around to face the ugly thing.

'_ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FREAKING MIND, GIRL?!' _

I screamed something to that effect, but there's no way she heard me. As close as that crushing monstrosity was, I barely heard myself. Yasutora dashed by her – _why don't you pick __**her**__ up?!_ – and then both of the stragglers. When they were past her, she raised her hands to her head and with a flash of insight, I knew what she intended. Not that that made me feel any better about it.

I couldn't hear the incantation, but I definitely saw the light as three points of energy swirled in a triangle shape with a glowing yellow plate of power held between them. It swelled large and slammed against the coming danger.

What happened next was seven seconds of Acme level lunacy.

_One_.

Ichigo and the others ran forward. I ran towards them.

_Two._

Orihime started turning around. I reached the running group. I saw Yoruichi-sensei leading the pack.

_Three._

I passed my teacher and the boys. Orihime had turned around was running for the gate again.

_Four_.

Between my super speed and Orihime's desperate dash, we met.

_Five._

I somehow half-dragged half-carried Orihime back to towards the gate at a speed that would have given me windburn if I wasn't covered in metal. Rather, something that resembled metal, anyway.

_Six._

Orihime and I caught up with the rest of the group just as they reached the exit.

_Seven_.

What I would later learn was the _kototsu_, or cleaner, had been giving off a rising roar ever since Orihime stopped it in its tracks. It didn't like being held back, apparently. That noise culminated in an explosion of fury that dwarfed every single other loud noise I had heard through the night. My ears _died_. Something gave me a very rough push from behind all over my body. I felt my feet leave the ground.

We had leapt through the first gate, but we flew through the second.

There wasn't any ground to greet us on the other side. Just a whirling moment of nausea and dizziness and confusion as to which way the ground was.

We found it eventually.

_

* * *

_

Next time – It's time to show just what she's learned.

_Okay, with the introduction of the SS arc, things are going to start diverting from canon a bit. One of these alterations happens next. _

_If you're wondering why this chapter came out three and a half months late, it's because I've been having brainstorms for stories that aren't __Chivalry__. This sucks, since my sense of responsibility (not to mention my absolute love of all things Arisawa) demanded that I get cracking on this things again. _

_And darn F F Net's stubborn editing system. Won't let me center the beginning disclaimer and quotes anymore, grumblegrumble_


	14. Squire 2

**Bleach and all of the things it incorporates are not mine. THEY ARE NOT MINE! So, nobody sue me.**

* * *

It's not about the size of the dog in the fight. It's about the size of the fight in the dog. –_ Unknown_

* * *

My armor has some kind of supernatural shock absorbers inside of it. This is nice, because we went flying out of that tunnel at holy shit miles per hour.

Orihime and the Shun Shun Rikka (seriously, that is not a good name for them. It sounds too cool. 'Flower Power Squad' is much more fitting) managed to soften the landing for everyone involved, but Yoruichi-sensei and I were the only ones who didn't get any bruises out of the ordeal.

So, yeah, welcome to the Soul Society.

There was dust everywhere, presumably from our impact. Everyone was coughing at least a little, I couldn't see anything and, perhaps childishly, I found myself thinking that this was _not_ how I imagined our trip starting out. Yoruichi-sensei hadn't mentioned anything like that freight train in the between space, so I thought it safe to say that he hadn't known it was there. Hello Murphy's Law. I missed you too, you dick.

I sat up and started hacking, reflexively expelling the dust from my lungs. Like my armor couldn't have come with an air filter? Around me, I could hear the others doing the same. They still weren't much more than blurs in the haze, even to my sharpened eyesight, but it seemed to be the correct number of blurs, which meant we hadn't lost anybody on the way down.

"Is everybody all right?" There was Orihime.

Mutters and mumbles broke out, with everyone giving some version of 'not dead'. That was actually debatable, seeing as how we were spirits – physical matter converted to spiritual matter, but still spirits – in the land of the dead, but let's not argue technicality points, okay? If I wanted to be a lawyer, I wouldn't have started studying martial arts.

The dust was a bit clearer by that point. I was finally able to see just where I had landed, not one foot away from the edge of the Three God Shield. Any closer and I would have come down on the ground with no buffer to speak of. That probably wouldn't have killed me, but it was still an uncomfortable realization.

'_Orihime, thanks a bunch.'_

Speaking of, she was laughing at Ichigo's position, not that I blamed her. He had somehow managed to come to a rest nearly on his head. Nearby, Uryuu was… pulling something white from a pocket and, oh my god, did he actually bring a change of clothes? …He did. Wow, dude. Just, _wow_.

(Kinda wish I'd thought of that. Never gonna say it out loud though.)

Mizuiro had landed on top of someone and when they moved, someone turned out to be Keigo. He hadn't been a stress induced hallucination after all. But seriously, how was he here? And why?

Worry later, Tatsuki. You're all alive, so take a moment to enjoy it.

"I'm so glad everyone's okay," Orihime sighed happily and I was just turning my head to grin at her ("Hey, of course we're alive!") when I saw Yoruichi-sensei launch himself at Orihime's face. Now, he might have been faster than me in training, but some things defy the laws of physics and this is one of them. If I am within a ten mile radius of her, I will reach Orihime before any threat. Check it out, if you don't believe me; it's in Isaac Newton's _Principia_.

Of course, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. What this means is that although I stopped sensei from gauging out Orihime's eyes, he was now utterly pissed at me.

I don't really need to say what happened next, do I?

"You could have been killed!" Yoruichi-sensei yowled. "Did you not listen to a single word I said? If it had been one of your flowers that made contact with the cleaner instead of just the barrier, it would have dragged you in! You would be _dead!_"

"Give her a break," Ichigo and I said at the exact same time. There was a brief look between us, the unspoken 'Hey, _I'm_ talking here', and then Ichigo said, "If she hadn't done what she did, we'd all be dead."

Yoruichi-sensei turned around to glare at _him_. "You fail to grasp the severity of the situation."

Things probably would have gotten much worse for Ichigo if Uryuu hadn't called out just then.

"The dust is settling."

And it was. I didn't feel a tickle in my lungs from the debris in the air and I could see clearly. As for what I saw….

If you had asked me what I imagined the Soul Society to be like before I'd run through that tunnel, I wouldn't have been able to give you a good answer. Afterlife-ish? But even with my supposed lack of preconceptions, I still felt surprised by what was really in front of me.

It was like something out of my history textbook or maybe one of those LARP settings for geeks. All of the buildings were only one story and they were all built out of wood and bamboo. There was a stone foundation beneath one big house, but even that looked hand made. The stone weren't cut to fit each other, just piled together in a way that happened to fit. There were trees pushing their tops between the buildings, growing right up in the allies between houses. Small stone wells were dotted here and there. The roads were hard packed dirt. The few tools I saw lying around – buckets, hoes, a rake – were all made of wood or bamboo. In the far off distance, I saw some mountains or maybe they were hills.

And it was _damn_ quiet.

I mean, like, creepy quiet.

"_This_ is the Soul Society?" Ichigo asked incredulously. I guess I wasn't the only one feeling strangely cheated.

"Yes," Yoruichi-sensei said. "This is the slum district, more commonly known as _Rukongai_, the drifting spirit town. This is where all souls come to live after being reaped. They live apart from the Death Gods, who reside in the _Seireitei_. This area isn't as glamorous, but it's generally much more relaxed and free than the inner city. Add on the fact that not everyone has what it takes to be a Soul Reaper and you'll find that most people live in this area."

"But then why is it so empty?" I asked. "Where did all the people go?"

"Um, hey?" Ichigo said. We all turned to look at him and saw that he was pointing behind us. "How come that place is so different from this one?"

I followed his fingertip and saw, about a hundred yards away, a deep ditch in the ground. It kind of looked like a shoddy canal. Beyond that stood the beginnings of a massive city. Unlike _Rukongai_, this place was stark white stone as far as I could see. It looked more like home than anything I'd seen so far, but there was still something wrong about it. No street lamps, no vehicles, no plants and, big surprise, no people. Seriously, where _was_ everybody?

Lack of inhabitants aside, it didn't take a genius to figure out what those white buildings were. Yoruichi-sensei had flat out said that _Seireitei_ was more glamorous than _Rukongai_, and a bunch of sparkly clean buildings standing on the other side of a divide from a worn rural community pretty much did it for 'glamorous'.

"I know!" Ichigo suddenly said, voicing what we all had to have been thinking. "That's where the Soul Reapers live, isn't it?"

Yoruichi-sensei nodded. "Yes, that is – "

He didn't get any further than that. Ichigo took off sprinting, his gigantic sword thumping on his back with each step. How he walked around with that thing, I did not know.

In hindsight, I suppose I was both still high on adrenaline and under the impression that nothing was going to happen anytime soon. I mean, we'd come down with all the stealth of an atomic bomb and no one was rushing out to kill us. So really, what could happen?

Famous last words, I know.

So I took off after Ichigo because, damn, if he could outrun me with that over sized kitchen knife attached to him, I had no business being here! And besides, I wanted to be the first one in.

My armor was still on, so I had no trouble catching up to him. I even gave him a tap on the back of the head as I passed by. I was grinning again, enjoying Ichigo's sudden shouts of indignant fury (something I hadn't heard for a while), when I finally realized that Yoruichi-sensei was screaming at the both of us. I only got the tail end of his tirade, but considering that end was "You'll die!" I didn't really need to hear the rest.

Oh, and the sky darkening as several hundred tons of wood and stone crashed into that canal (which, now that I thought about it, was really just an indentation from the last time that had happened) also clued me in to the fact that I was probably screwed.

The impact was more than enough to lift me off my feet and send me flying back several yards to land on my butt. I was crawling to my feet, choking on dust again and wishing I'd brought a surgical mask, when the _biggest fucking voice_ I had _ever_ heard sounded from somewhere way too close for comfort.

"It's been quite a while since anyone tried to pass through the spirit gate without a permit."

I stood up.

The dust cleared.

I stared at something's knee caps.

'_This… cannot possibly end well.'_

I looked up.

And _up_.

And finally I saw a brutish face with a too-large nose staring at me from underneath a little fez cap. I thought it was a monkey – King Kong's second-cousin or something – until I realized that it just had the sideburns from hell and was nothing more than a really, _really_ big human who had too much chest showing. At least, that's what I thought. I had been wrong before.

Then things actually got worse when it looked at me. It smiled the way I smile when I have apple pie in front of me.

'_Oh, fuck all.' _

"At last, I have another customer! Welcome, young lady."

His right hand, which until that moment had been pressed to the ground (I'm guessing it was for balance. When I said the guy was like a big ape, I wasn't exaggerating. He was totally top heavy), lifted up and I finally noticed that it was clutching an absolutely massive axe. The freaking thing was bigger than me.

"Now, show me what you can do!" It boomed.

My brain kind of went into autopilot. It wasn't that I was scared. I just had a 'what the hell' moment. I mean, really, a _giant?_ What was I supposed to do with that? Climb a beanstalk and punch him in the eye?

"Yeah, I'll… get… right on that," I deadpanned.

'_As soon as I have a plan._'

"Oh? You don't want to pass through my gate?" He asked.

"No, I want through the gate. I just don't get want a giant in front of me."

"I'm the gatekeeper, of course," it said. Yeah, of course, silly me. _Of course_ a gate falling out of the sky would have a fifty foot tall gatekeeper. Yeah, sure, makes perfect sense, really.

Shut up.

"My name is Jidanbo and if you want to pass through the White Gate, you need to defeat me first. I'll warn you, though – I've been at this post for three hundred years and no one has beaten me yet."

Then his eyes flickered to my left and I was suddenly aware of some of the others running up to join me. My eyes tracked his movements easily enough, but it still doesn't change the fact that for a guy so effing big, Jidanbo had some serious speed in him. His axe lifted up and swung down in an earth shattering strike that nearly blasted me off my feet. All of a sudden there was dirt in the air again and I was coughing for the second time today. Or was it tonight? The sun was out in the Soul Society, but it had been in the early a.m. when we left Karakura.

I could still feel all of my friends, although when they stood so close together their auras started to blur into one. As nice as it was, it also seemed kind of weird. Three hundred years of victory, he said, and he missed them at that range?

Except then he spoke and I realized it wasn't an accident.

"You people have terrible manners. You must be from the country. Listen, cities have rules. Wash your hands before you eat, don't eat things off the floor, and rule number three…"

The dust had cleared around me by the time he got to that part. I could see again and oh man, what did I see. He hadn't been aiming for Ichigo, Yasutora or Orihime. He'd been aiming for the road in front of them. His axe blow had cracked the earth that marked the boundary of the _Seireitei_ and lifted a huge chunk of it clean up, like the lid of a pot. He had, somehow, hit it just right to create a huge wall of ragged rock and dirt between me and my friends.

'_Okay, maybe he wasn't exaggerating about that 'never lost a fight' bit….'_

That same axe was now poised above _me_.

"…duels are between two people only."

Oh, great. So that was his game.

Still….

This could work for me.

"Now, the young lady with the shiny skin got here first, so I'm going to fight her. The rest of you just have wait patiently until I've flattened her. You're in the city now, so you have to obey the rules."

Such a polite murderous gatekeeper, wasn't he?

Seriously, I could work with it. He kept going on about manners and he hadn't tried to attack me yet. Was he waiting for my consent or something? If Soul Society's culture was as outdated as its architecture, then the soldiers might adhere to some kind of honorable combat guidelines. That was actually a nice thought.

So, could I walk away if I chose to? Maybe, but I wasn't going to try. An idea was worming its way into my brain.

"Who's Tsubaki?" Jidanbo suddenly asked. He was looking beyond the shattered divide. I had a pretty good idea of why he'd said that.

Sorry guys, but I don't want you riding in to save my day just yet.

"Hey, everybody! Don't do anything, okay? I want to try this on my own!"

Dead silence.

Then, "_No way!" _

Well gee, thanks for the faith in me.

Although, I couldn't really blame them. Even for me, this was probably asking for trouble.

"Tatsuki-chan, why? We'd fight better together!" That was Orihime.

"Yeah, idiot. Quit acting tough!" That was Ichigo.

"Hey, guys? Just shut up and listen for a second, okay?" I yelled. "I want to – "

"No, _you_ listen!" Uryuu, I'm starting to hate your tone. "You saw what he just did with that axe! Fighting him yourself is tantamount to suicide!"

"Ishida, _shut! Up! _And friggin' _listen!_" I snapped. "I want to try and take him down myself, okay? I think I can!"

"That's not good enough!" Was Uryuu kicking the barrier?

_Thumpthumpthump! _

Yes, he was.

Then, quite strangely, Mizuiro's voice somehow managed to float above everyone else's shouts and yells. At the time I didn't think much of it, but knowing what I do now….

"You're sure about this, Arisawa-san?"

I was leaning against the rough wall behind me, staring at Jidanbo's feet and doing some rather furiously paced thinking. Was I sure? Not a chance. My fingers were drumming a pattern of little ridges into my arms as I tapped them again and again, but really, there was only one answer for me.

"Yeah, I am. I want to fight him myself. I want to know if I've learned enough."

I could almost see him smiling, even with eight feet of earth between us. Somehow, I just knew he was right behind the wall. "Okay then."

Then his pleasant, totally out of place voice rose and started doing something that was not quite a shout, but was too loud for his normal voice. There should be a word for that, but I think Mizuiro's the only who can do it and they don't add to the Japanese language because of one high school student.

"Good luck, Arisawa-san! Don't get killed, okay?"

I could hear Uryuu yelling "Don't _encourage_ her, you idiot!" and Keigo yelling "I can't explain this to your parents, Arisawa-san!" and Ichigo yelling "Don't make me have to save your ass, Tatsuki!"

But I could also hear Yoruichi-sensei yelling "Don't try to block his strike!" (although I felt that was uncalled for. How dumb did he think I was?) and Orihime yelling "Be careful, Tatsuki-chan!"

Maybe Yasutora said something, but it's Yasutora. He doesn't yell.

I had a feeling that was as much of a blessing as I was going to get. Now then, to business.

"Hey, big guy!"

Jidanbo looked down at me. He had been polishing his axe on his sleeve.

"Oh? Are you done talking now?"

I grinned. "Yeah, I'm done. Seriously though, why'd you wait? I can think of plenty of people who'd try to knock you on your ass for pulling something like that."

I'd trained with one of them.

Jidanbo snorted. "Bumpkins, all of you. Learn manners. Attacking someone without warning isn't polite. And if your opponent waits for you to finish your business before striking, you say – "

His axe _moved_.

" – _THANK YOU!" _

'_Move!' _

Reflex kicked in and I kicked off, switching gears from motionless to sprinting. I ran straight forward, under the axe and heard/felt it hit the ground behind me with enough force to rattle my teeth. The force was enough to knock me forward and I curled my body to roll with it. I came up on all fours behind Jidanbo, who was already turning around the strike at me again even as I pushed off with both my arms and legs. The dude was _fast_, even though he had to weigh fifty times more than me.

'_Well, screw you, Jidanbo. I'm faster.' _

He was turning around to his right side and that left his left leg as the pivot he turned on. I wouldn't say all of his weight was on that leg, but it definitely held the majority of it. Now, I couldn't reach his knee or thigh without jumping, something I didn't really want to do. If I left the ground, I couldn't change direction (Yoruichi-sensei had never gotten around to teaching me how he did otherwise). His ankle and foot, however, were well within reach.

Tell me, how much do you know about the Achilles tendon? It's that muscle that connects your heel to your calf, that one you feel at the back of your ankle when you stretch your legs. For such a tiny thing, it's pretty vital for a very important function: speed. If you lose your Achilles, you can still walk, although a more accurate description would be 'hobble', but there is no way in hell you are ever going to run again until it's better.

(In case you're wondering, no, I'm not a biology whiz. It's just that Yoruichi-sensei insists, with good cause, that knowing more about human anatomy will make me a better fighter and also because he personally showed me how hard it is to fight, how hard it is to move _period_, after your Achilles has been savaged by something smaller and meaner than you.)

If Jidanbo didn't know this, he was going to figure it out real quick by the time I was done.

I wasn't sure my comparatively tiny fist would do the job, so I lowered my shoulder, tucked in my head and rammed my whole upper body into the back of Jidanbo's ankle at what I'm guessing to be ninety or so miles an hour.

Another little fact: the Achilles can be pretty damn sensitive.

Jidanbo _yelled_ and I stumbled over my own two feet trying to get my balance back after that sudden stop. I ducked just in time, because he fell down onto the knee of the leg I'd just taken out. His crotch banging into my head would have been pretty terrible. I ran away just as his left hand swiped at me and wound up back by the earthen wall he'd made with his axe. Without stopping, I ran straight up it and jumped away when his axe came at me again. I got away, but that poor section of the wall didn't live to see another day.

So, not one minute after deciding that I'd like to keep my feet on the ground, I was flying through the air. Figured. I twisted in the air, a stunt that should have gotten me a least a silver medal, and found myself heading right for Jidanbo's chest.

If it had been happening to anyone else, it would have been hilarious. It was happening to me, so it sucked. I hit Jidanbo's chest and – I swear I'm not making this up – fell down his robe. He only wore half of it, really. His left side was bare, except for some armor he had strapped to his arm. I was really only half inside his robe, but it was still bad. I slid down until I reached his belt and that was when his free hand came up to crush me like I was a mosquito.

In one of those flashes of insight you usually don't get until it's way too late to be useful, I wondered if my armor, which protected me from cuts and high speed collisions, could stand up to a three ton giant putting the squeeze on me.

As with so many other things in life, I was going to find out the hard way.

Jidanbo peeled me off of his chest and then _clenched_. I swear to god, it felt like every last atom of oxygen was forced out from my lungs. I thought my eyes would pop out of my skull. More importantly, _I couldn't freaking breathe!_

As panicked as I was, I was also kind of annoyed, because the pressure just stopped after that. Jidanbo crushed me just enough to keep me from inhaling, but no further. A small part of me wondered if that was okay, since my Achilles stunt had more or less crippled him. The larger part was calling him a sadistic, goat screwing, prick with questionable ancestry.

(It wasn't until _much_ later that I learned Jidanbo actually hadn't let up on his grip after he saw me lose my air. He just _couldn't_ put any more pressure on me. The only give his grip had ever forced from my tiny body was that one big exhale and after that it had been like squeezing a rock. I'd been wondering for a while if the armor really was only on my skin. Such a thing would keep me safe from cuts, yeah, but all those crashes and tumbles I took? Well, now I had proof that it did indeed go deeper than my skin. Apparently my bones were indestructible, too.)

I could hear my friends yelling and it occurred to me that, if I died, they were going to see it happen.

I kind of didn't like that thought.

Okay, I _really_ didn't like that thought. Orihime had been holding her brother's hand when he died on his gurney and Ichigo had seen his fair share of corpses in the clinic as well. Neither of them liked talking about and it was pretty easy to understand why. I admit it was mostly pride and self-preservation that made me keep fighting, but I was thinking of them a little too. No one wants their friends' last memory of them to be a gory death.

My arms were pinned, my legs were pinned and I didn't have any projectile attacks like the others, so I improvised. The webbing between Jidanbo's index finger and his thumb was right next to my head on the left side. I leaned over as far as I could and _bit_.

Yeah, I know – low blow. Seriously though, shut up. The guy was friggin' trying to kill me.

It worked wonderfully, although I'm pretty sure Jidanbo wouldn't say so. He screamed "Ouch!" and flung me away like I was a snake. I hit another side of the earth wall and fell to the ground. I inhaled as much as I could and let me tell you, air never tasted sweeter. Then I had to move again because Jidanbo had twisted his body around on his half-functioning lower body to swing that axe at me again. I'll give the guy this: he was _really _dedicated to his job.

I couldn't stand up because my head felt hollow and I would likely have fallen right back down again. Instead I reverted back to my kindergarten safety rules, stopped, dropped and rolled. The axe tore into the ground not two feet from my left side. Then it lifted up again and I threw myself to the other side as it tried to bisect me.

That continued for an embarrassingly long time, even after I got my breath back. I am fast and that's not bragging, but even I need a tenth of a second or so (in those days, at least) to get on two feet from four limbs and Jidanbo _wasn't giving me that time!_ The guy might look dim and in a lot of ways I think he is, but there is a big difference between dim and dumb. Jidanbo was not dumb and he knew that I couldn't get up to attack him as long as I was rolling around. All he had to do was wait for me to make one mistake and then he'd splatter me all over the _Seireitei's _front porch.

Thankfully, that wasn't what happened.

He _did_ hit me, true enough, but instead of his axe breaking me, I broke his axe.

I slipped on one of my rolls. Part of the reason I move so fast is because of the slickness of my armor. It's totally seamless and doesn't catch on anything. The only exception is on the bottom of my feet, where I have these little boot-like treads on my soles. I'd be sliding around like ice skater without those. It has its perks, one of which is it is damn near impossible to grab me, but it also makes it really hard for me to grab onto things myself. Most of the time it isn't a problem; I'm just more careful about where and how I grab something. Having a giant axe crash into the ground near you over and over again kind of screws with your concentration though and so I slipped when trying to throw myself out of the way.

Jidanbo's axe came down _hard_ and slammed into me. I was forced through the ground and had dirt jam its way into my throat and nose. I inhaled, instinctively trying to get back the air I'd lost with the collision, and the dirt got in deeper. I started coughing and scrambling my arms at the same time. I clawed my way out of that hole quick enough and must have hacked up half a pound of earth, but the thing I kept thinking the whole time was '_where's the axe? Where's the axe?'_

Then I actually looked up at my opponent and saw why he'd stopped swinging.

I stared.

Jidanbo stared.

My friends were probably staring too, though I can't vouch for it.

That axe, which had torn up had packed earth as easily as though it were dry clay, was _ruined_. There just isn't any other way to say it. The whole thing was spider webbed with tiny cracks and, as Jidanbo lifted the axe closer to his face to see if this was actually happening (I couldn't blame him), those cracks widened and the entire axe blade just fell apart into tennis ball sized pieces.

'…_Uh… did I do that?' _

Evidently, I had. Jidanbo certainly knew it, because he turned to me and gave the single biggest whimper I have ever heard from a guy I hadn't kicked in the crotch.

"You-o-o…" Jidanbo whined. There were actually _tears_ in his eyes. "You _broke my axe, you MEANIE!_"

"Er… you _were_ trying to – WHOA!"

He had _another_ one! Quick as a flash, he'd reached into his half a jacket and pulled a second axe out. It was whistling toward me and I ran.

Jidanbo was pretty attached to those axes. Crying when I'd unintentionally broken one had been the biggest and only clue towards his sentimentality, but it was too good a chance to pass up. You shouldn't get emotional in a fight, folks. You really shouldn't.

Ricocheting off of the broken earth wall again brought me to Jidanbo's front. Snarling, the big guy brought the newest axe down towards me and I ran at him again.

Like I said, Jidanbo wasn't dumb. He'd seen me do it before and he knew to block me the second time. His working right leg suddenly shifted itself into my path and forced me to run away to the left.

Which is more or less what I'd wanted.

Sorry Jidanbo, but 'not dumb' doesn't mean you can't do dumb things. Especially when you're mad and not thinking clearly.

I ran passed him and, using the decent amount of momentum I'd gained, started going straight up the wall of _Seireitei's_ fence.

"_Hey, stop!"_ Jidanbo screamed.

Not happening.

'_Come on, go for it, I'm getting passed your precious gate, what's a good gatekeeper do to girls like that, come on.' _

And he did it.

Jidanbo spun around violently fast to swing his axe at me.

At least, he tried to.

Doing a complete one-eighty turn on your knee is very difficult with only one good leg to help.

Doing a complete one-eighty turn on your knee in time to catch a speedy little brat with only one good leg is damn near impossible.

Doing a complete one-eighty turn on a knee with one good leg to push yourself, when swinging a weapon at a moving target, when you are a very top heavy fighter, is, as Jidanbo proved, completely impossible.

If he had been thinking clearly, for his sake, I like to believe he would have known that.

Jidanbo went down, his lower body twisted beneath him. His front half was still facing me and the _Seireitei's_ wall, so I took the wonderful opportunity such a scenario offered. Stopping halfway up the wall, my momentum gave me just enough force to hold me in place for a second while I did a (successful) U-turn and faced Jidanbo. He didn't look so big anymore. I kicked off as hard as I could and angled my body towards his.

For the record, he tried to catch me. He really did. But however fast Jidanbo was in a fight, I was still faster.

Sorry neighbor.

Between my kick off, gravity's pull and the bizarre acceleration my armor always caused, I must have been going about seventy miles an hour when my feet crashed into Jidanbo's face. His head slammed down into the dirt and bounced up just as I jumped off. I landed right on the rough edge of the earth wall he'd formed and somehow kept my balance.

My friends were asking me what had happened and if I was all right, but for the moment I had to ignore them until I was sure it was over and done with.

One glance at Jidanbo and the copious amount of blood leaking from his nose and mouth, not to mention the glazed look in his half open eyes, confirmed it pretty well for me.

The gatekeeper was out of it.

In a few more seconds, I would fall off the wall, Chad would catch me and Orihime would fix me up, but until that happened I was standing on a chunk of ragged earth and my gaze traveled from Jidanbo's body and up, up, up to the gate he had fought so hard to protect.

'…_How do we get that friggin' thing to open?'_

And _then_ I fell.

_

* * *

_

Next time – People go crazy after they die. It's the only sane explanation.

_Over a year since my last chapter? I bet you all sent flowers to my supposed funeral, right? _

_Also, I WANT TO CENTER THE FIRST TWO LINES OF THIS DOCUMENT ARGH FANFICTION DOCUMENT MANAGER YOU SUCK SO MUCH!_


	15. Squire 3

_**Bleach and all of the things it incorporates are not mine. THEY ARE NOT MINE! So, nobody sue me.**_

* * *

Just using their heads doesn't make woodpeckers smart. –_ Unknown_

* * *

Despite being used as a hacky-sack by someone large enough to flatten my house, I wasn't in need of any magical fairy first-aid when Yasutora set me down on my feet. Do you know why? Because my armor kicks ass, that's why.

Of course, we still had the big problem of how to get the gate open. The only one capable of opening a giant gate is a giant man and Jidanbo, the man in question, was… not in such great shape at the time. Given his reception to us a few minutes earlier, I didn't think he'd let us through now that I'd kicked his face in.

"You need to revive him," Yoruichi-sensei said.

Then again, maybe the head trauma had addled his brains to the point where he would reconsider? Yeah, _sure_.

"Come on, no we don't," Ichigo said. "It's just a gate. We can open it ourselves now that he's out of the picture."

"I highly doubt that," Yoruichi-sensei countered. "Each of the four gates weighs around 300 tons and can only be opened by lifting it. Unless one of you has managed to withhold super strength from my attention thus far, Jidanbo is the only one who can open our way."

Light bulb.

"Hey, I can just run up the gate!" I crowed. Then reality crashed down around me, smelling faintly of cat, when Yoruichi-sensei calmly asked, "And then?" He had a point there. I couldn't exactly bring the others along for the ride with me.

"Actually," Uryuu interrupted. "There may be another way."

**Attempt 1**

"Ready?"

"Ready!"

We'd stolen some rope from a nearby shed. Yasutora would throw me to the top of the gate, I would hold the rope while everyone else climbed up one at a time and then we could all jump down to the other side and land on Orihime's Three God Shield.

Uryuu watched cartoons. This whole cockamamie scheme proved that very firmly, because this was the sort of garbage I'd expect from Wile E. Coyote. Still, it might have worked, had I not been wearing the armor while Yasutora tossed me. He couldn't get a proper grip for the throw and I wound up gaining more speed than altitude, hitting the gate with my face and tumbling back to the ground.

**Attempt 2**

"Ready?"

"Yeah, ready."

No armor until take-off this time.

Everyone was gathered in a crowd around me and Yasutora while he heaved me up into his arms, swung them back and then sent me rocketing forward and up.

Okay, I will admit that this idea worked a little bit better, but only to the point where I armored up to brace for the landing and my stupid, annoying, armor-slicked hands lost my grip on the rope and it fell back to the ground without me.

And then I hit the gate again because I wasn't looking ahead.

**Attempt 3**

"Rea –"

"_Just move_, _moron!" _

"Okay."

I was getting on top of that gate. It was going down. Or up. Whatever. The point was that I had not run through to another world and beaten up a giant to get stopped by a _fucking piece of masonry. _

No help from Yasutora this time. The rope was tied around my wrist so tightly that even the armor wouldn't be able to slide it off and I was going to grip it tight, just in case. I had run over halfway up that gate during my fight and I could have gone further before I turned around. This time I was going to keep moving until I hit the top.

I lowered myself into position and then kicked off, accelerating at a crazy rate. I blew passed my friends and started bounding up the gate with absolutely no regard for gravity. That bitch hadn't treating me right anyway.

Here's the awful part: I reached the top. I had finally started slowing down near the end, but I still had enough momentum going to lunge for the edge of the gate and curl my left hand – the one without the rope attached to it – over the top edge. My armor's friction reducing super-slick would have just sent me tumbling back down and I was so sick of falling that there aren't words for it. Therefore, I cleverly banished my body armor just as my hand found purchase on the top of the White Gate. I had a solid grip and yelled in victory.

An action which quickly turned to a yell of despair as, without my insane momentum giving me power any longer, I was mercilessly dragged back off the gate by the weight of the two hundred or so feet of rope I had carried up with me.

"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD daaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn _iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!"_

Thump.

**Attempt 4**

"Arisawa-san, please stop kicking the gate."

**Attempt 4.5**

"All right, I have another -"

"Ishida, if your plan involves me in any way, I am just going to kick Jidanbo in the nuts until he wakes up and opens the damn gate for us!" I snarled.

I had managed to get my armor back on before becoming a splatter on the ground. Not that it mattered much, because death was starting to look preferable. That was, until I remembered we were already in the land of the dead and I'd be stuck in front of the damn gate even if I offed myself right then and there.

Fucking gate.

"Uh, no. You're done, Arisawa-san. From what I understand, Asano-san can walk through solid objects, so I suggest he tries to – "

"It wouldn't work," Yoruichi-sensei cut in. "I told you: the gate and the fence are both made of _seki-seki_. It's a material that blocks spiritual energy. If Asano tried to walk through it while in his… other state, I think it very likely he would re-emerge as a physical being the moment he touched the rock. The odds are good that this would end with him fused to the gate."

Ishida blinked and I could see the gears in his head change direction.

"Ah. All right then, how about we –"

"You aren't listening," Yoruichi-sensei cut in again and his voice had a definite edge to it now. "I told you before and I say it again: we must go through the gate and I say _through _it, not over or under. The only one who can open the gate is Jidanbo, and so we must wake him and convince him to open it for us. All of these attempts have wasted time, time which could be used by the _Shinigami_ to gather forces in preparation of our breaching the gate. We will not do this anymore. Inoue, wake Jidanbo. Arisawa, Sado and Kurosaki: take up positions around him and get ready to act if he turns violent."

It occurred to me, as I took up my position, that he could have saved a good five minutes of time if he had taken charge before I had attempted to crack the gate open with my head so many times. I considered asking him about that, but dropped the idea quickly because A) it wasn't that important and B) I was pretty sure I knew the answer anyway. My teacher, wise and powerful though he is, has a streak of cheerful sadism a mile wide hiding behind his venerable whiskered face. That bastard might have done it just for laughs.

"Ready?" Orihime yelled.

There was a collective yell of the affirmative type and then the Twin God Reflection Shield started up. It wasn't too long before Jidanbo was sitting up and rubbing his head. You'll forgive me if I chose to stay behind him. People who try to smash me don't leave me with a good lasting impression and if Jidanbo went nuts, I wanted to be on him before he could do much damage.

"Huh," was his first word. This was shortly followed by, "I'm not dead."

And again, I would like to say that he _was_ dead, because we were all technically spirits and in the spirit world, but 'dead' sounds less stupid than 'deader' and… you know what? Screw it. If I bring this up again, just remind me that it doesn't matter. There's alive, there's dead and, apparently, there's dead-dead. Simple.

Shut up.

"Jidanbo," Yoruichi said without preamble. "We need you to open the gate."

Three tons of giant looked down at fifteen pounds of cat. Jidanbo took Yoruichi-sensei in a whole lot better than any of us had. There was a moment of silence (very _tense_ silence. Everyone had seen Jidanbo in action and no one really wanted a repeat) and then Jidanbo picked up his axe.

Keigo vanished in a heartbeat and I had an adrenaline surge that lifted the hair off my neck.

But Jidanbo didn't attack. It took me a moment to look past the massive handle he was holding and see that he had picked up his shattered axe. He was just staring at it like he didn't know what to do and kind of whimpering.

Huh. Now that we weren't in a fight, there was nothing to stop him from mourning his precious weapon.

It… was actually kind of sad. I'm sorry, did I say sad? I meant pathetic.

"My axe…." Jidanbo moaned.

"Well, what did you expect?" Ichigo drawled. Proving that ten days away from his dad had not dimmed his survival instincts in the slightest, his sword hand was still holding firmly onto the handle of his _zanpakutou_ when he spoke to Jidanbo. "You tried to kill her with 'em. Did you think she'd just lie down and take it?"

I blinked, momentarily thrown for a loop. That was exactly what had happened. I'd fallen down and taken an axe to the back, only the axe had come out worse. I couldn't figure out why Ichigo would say that, until I remembered that he'd been behind the earth wall and hadn't been able to see what had happened.

Jidanbo did not take kindly to Ichigo's criticism. Wailing, he pulled his remaining axe up for another swing, but it never fell. The reason for this is because Orihime sent her shield above Ichigo, Yasutora and Uryuu both raised ominously glowing points of focused energy at Jidanbo's face and I was very suddenly on Jidanbo's shoulder, grabbing hold of his right ear.

Hm. Was this how the shoulder angels did it?

"Listen you!" I yelled. I was all of a foot away from his ear canal, so take a minute to imagine how that had to have felt. "I broke the first axe and I'll break the second, unless you put it down right god damn now!"

And I couldn't believe my eyes, _but it worked._ Jidanbo must have _really_ liked his axes.

"Fine," he whined. "You beat me. Three hundred years I've been guarding this gate and now I get beaten by a mean little girl. I'm _ashamed!"_

Whatever eggshell thin mask of maturity Jidanbo had managed to hold up for that long finally crumbled and I saw a grown man cry for the first time in my life. It really wasn't that great.

And, seriously, we were wasting time with this guy.

"Yes, yes, it's very sad," I said. "Now open the freaking gate or the mean little girl will start ripping out your eyelashes."

"Tatsuki-chan!" Orihime yelled from far below. "Be nice! He's not gonna fight anymore and I don't want to have to fix him again!"

"If he starts something, it'll be his own damn fault," I muttered. Then I yelped and tightened my grip on Jidanbo's ear as he suddenly fell forward in front of Orihime.

"You! Young miss! You fixed me?"

Orihime nodded hesitantly and then Jidanbo was thrusting the handle of his ruined axe at my friend.

"Please, tell me if you can fix this!"

Orihime blinked and then laughed nervously. "Well, if you gathered up all the pieces, I guess I could give it a try. I've only healed people before now, though."

Jidanbo started bowing on his hands and knees, over and over again, and _fuck_, did he not feel the teenager hanging off of his ear lobe? Three sharp bows from Jidanbo and I lost my grip. I managed to kick him in the cheek as I fell, but it wasn't equal retribution for the drop.

Jidanbo flat out refused to do anything else until Orihime had at least tried to repair his weapon, so we all started picking up the pieces of Jidanbo's shattered axe. Keigo pitched in too, having reappeared once it became clear that Jidanbo was not going to go insane and murder us in a violent frenzy.

("Keigo, why are you even here?"

"What do you mean, Ichigo? Everyone else came."

"Yeah, but I swear I heard that you were staying behind. Now you just show up in the middle of the _Senkeimon_ and vanish whenever trouble shows up. What gives?"

"Well, I can't really fight, you know?"

"Yeah, I do know. So why are you here?"

"Well… oh, look! Another piece!"

"Hey, don't change the subject! Get back here!")

Once all of the pieces were recovered (or at least all the ones we could find), Orihime set up the Twin God Reflection Shield again. This was just as interesting as watching her heal flesh and bone. The metal just sort of flew together and slotted into place like the world's most complex jigsaw puzzle, and then fused. Viola, instant fix.

Jidanbo was ecstatic.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, kind young lady!"

"Aw, it was nothing."

"So, can you open the gate for us now?" Ichigo asked.

Jidanbo lifted up his two axes, looked down at us and smiled. "Nope."

Dead. Silence.

"Jidanbo-kun, I can beat you up again if you want," I smiled sweetly.

"Not doing nothing," Jidanbo said with cheerful, devil-may-careness. "Even if I did want to let you through – which I _don't_, mean girl (but you and your friends could go through, nice miss!) – I still can't stand up, much less open the gate. Not after you messed up my ankle like that."

There was a moment of _what the fuck?_ and then I was turning, along with everyone else, to look at Orihime, who was suddenly very fidgety. Like, kid-caught-with-hand-in-candy-jar fidgety.

"Well… you see, Soul Society people are kind of different from our world people," Orihime said slowly. "I couldn't really fix Jidanbo up like I do you guys, so I just woke him up."

"Well, fix him, girl," Yoruichi-sensei snapped. "We don't have all day."

The fidgeting got even worse.

"Well, that's the thing. I think I can fix him, but it's going to take a while."

"How long?" Uryuu asked.

"Um… an hour, maybe?"

Oh, _no way! _

"This is bad," Yoruichi-sensei said, summing up my entire mental shriek into three words. "Those within the wall will certainly wonder why Jidanbo is taking so long to report in and any chance we have of slipping through the gate undiscovered grows smaller with each minute. By the time Inoue heals Jidanbo to the point that he can open the gate, there will doubtless be resistance waiting on the other side."

Well gee whiz, sensei, why don't you tell us the _bad_ news?

"We cannot proceed forward at this point. We must find another way in."

…Why do I ask for these things?

I mean, I'd kind of known he was going to say it, but actually hearing it was just horrible. All that work and it was for nothing? I rammed my face into that gate multiple times for nothing?

Damn Jidanbo and his glass Achilles tendon! I didn't hit him _that_ hard! Only at almost one hundred miles an hour, but seriously, it was a love tap for someone his size, _right?_

* * *

Apparently not.

It took not one, but _five hours_ for Orihime to fix Jidanbo up to perfect form. In that time we had discovered people hiding in the houses nearby and after much cajoling (mostly on Mizuiro's part) they finally started coming out once they were convinced we weren't berserker cannibals waiting to eat their sweet flesh.

Yoruichi-sensei was nice enough to explain the situation. As we had entered this world without a Soul Reaper escort, we were illegal aliens, in a sense. As in so many other countries, the ones without visas were blamed for most of the trouble. So, us being _ryoka_ (Soul Society's word for outsider) the inhabitants were none too pleased to have us around, essentially since we (I) had so thoroughly roughed up Jidanbo, who was the only nice Soul Reaper they had any extended contact with.

None of them seemed swayed by my argument of 'he tried to fucking kill me, damn it!'

(It was probably because they knew I started the fight.)

Still, not all of them were standoffish. Yasutora was pulled aside by this little boy named Yuichi and they spent the day walking around _Rukongai _and talking. Ichigo explained to the rest of us that Yuichi had been one of the souls he helped while he was still doing Rukia's job. Apparently a serial killer had murdered Yuichi and his mother, then died, became a hollow and continued to torment the poor kid even after death. It ended after Ichigo sent him to Hell and Yuichi on to Soul Society.

Yes folks, there is a Hell; with a capital H and chock full of eternal damnation. Kurosaki Ichigo, the crybaby who I once beat up when we were both a tender four years old, had curb stomped a malevolent spirit through the gates of Hell with extreme and justified prejudice.

Why am I never around when the cool stuff happens?

Keigo disappeared soon after Yasutora, saying he wanted to explore. I think he just wanted to get away from the rest of us without explaining anything. We'd tried getting him to say why he'd come after us, but he wasn't talking. I didn't get why.

Orihime was busy fixing Jidanbo (we weren't going through the gate anymore, but she didn't feel right about just leaving him with a bum leg and a busted face. My feelings on that were about 180 degrees away from hers) and Mizuiro, Uryuu and Ichigo were all huddling up in some elder's house with Yoruichi-sensei, trying to figure out what to do next… or, rather, Yoruichi-sensei tried to figure out what to do next and the boys just waited for him to speak his mind (or not, in Mizuiro's case).

I hung around the gate with Orihime. There wasn't much to do aside from throw rocks at the insurmountable obstacle that had so humiliated me, but it beat being packed into a one room shack with three teenage boys, a talking cat and a man who smelled like prune juice. Also, I never got tired of watching Orihime work her magic.

Orihime had gathered quite a crowd while she worked. It was neat watching her fix things, I understood that, but most of the bystanders were men with no girls following them and sometimes I caught them staring at something other than Orihime's Twin God Shield.

I started crushing rocks with my bare hands soon after that. You know… for strength training. Oddly enough, most of the men chose to leave when I did that. The fact that I was staring at them as I turned the rocks to bits of gravel may have been an extra incentive.

That was mildly entertaining compared to the boredom of waiting for Orihime to finish, but the highpoint of the night came about three minutes after I told her to stop before she collapsed.

I would like to say that prior to my arrival in the afterlife, Don Kanonji was the single weirdest person I had ever met. Not creepy weird (Urahara Kisuke had that, hands down), but annoying-comedic-oh-my-god-he-can't-be-serious weird. Kanonji was the _king_ of that kind of bizarre.

And then I met Shiba Ganju.

Actually, I didn't even really 'meet' him. I just dodged when a human cannonball came flying through the elder's hut after being hurled at us by an irate boar.

Hang on. I'll back up.

The sun had gone down and I was leading Orihime into the increasingly cramped hut that Yoruichi-sensei and the others were in. It was beginning to look as though we were staying the night and I wanted to snag a bedroll close to the fire before anyone else did. Dinner was looking good too. Orihime and I walked through the doorway just in time to hear the tail end of Yoruichi-sensei's sentence. Everyone else, even Keigo, had already made their way back.

"..ow someone who can help us."

"What'd you say?" I asked.

The lithe black cat turned to look at Orihime. "Inoue-san, how is Jidanbo?"

"Um, well, I couldn't finish fixing him entirely, but he's at the point where a few days of rest should do everything else. I think he'll be okay."

"Good. His loyalties aside, Jidanbo does have a good heart. I wouldn't enjoy seeing him die," Yoruichi-sensei admitted.

"Yeah, the big guy's fine," I drawled as I sat down on the opposite side of the fire pit. "So, what were you guys talking about?"

"Yoruichi-san was saying that he knows someone who can help us get into the _Seireitei_. The thing is –"

"The person in question tends to relocate fairly often," Yoruichi-sensei cut into Mizuiro's explanation. "However, if we can make contact, then they should be able to –"

"– get us over the walls of the city without us having to go through the gates," Mizuiro finished.

"Kojima, _stop doing that_," Yoruichi-sensei.

Mizuiro smiled, becoming the picture of bemused shame. None of us were fooled for a second. "I'm very sorry, Yoruichi-san. It's in my nature."

"I can very much believe that," Yoruichi-sensei deadpanned. Then, "Elder. We have only been in this district for a day and none of us are familiar with it. Do you know whether there is a person named Shiba Kukaku nearby?"

The old man gave a rather unpleasant jolt when he heard that name. That did nothing for my worries.

He rubbed his wrinkly old chin thoughtfully and then spoke. "As I recall, that person is currently dwelling in the west Fugai district, not very far from here. However, the house may have moved by now. If you are an acquaintance of Kukaku, then you should know how rarely the Shiba household stays in one place for long."

And this is where things – which had been relatively normal – went seriously screwy.

An alarm, like the one in my hated nightstand clock, began ringing shrilly from somewhere close by the hut.

We had about two seconds after that to look towards the door and wonder what it was. My thoughts were something along the lines of Soul Reapers coming to slaughter us all, but then Mizuiro chirped "You will all want to move away now," and I jumped away.

Good thing I'd listened to him. The door was smashed off its hinges by over one hundred pounds of fast moving idiot. The person in question hit the ground hard, bounced off the dirt, hit the wooden deck of the house floor and then began sliding towards the fire pit. He stopped before he hit the flames, which was good for him because none of us had enough wits about us to tackle him before he hit.

This was mostly because we were busy staring at the giant boar wearing a pink ribbon that had appeared in the open doorway.

Nope, not kidding.

Giant boar. Pink ribbon. With the words 'four hoof drive' tattooed on its left side.

"Ho, boy…. Bonnie threw me again…."

'_Oh look, he isn't dead.'_

The living (ghostly? Damn Soul Society for screwing up my understanding of descriptive verbs) man stood up and shook the dirt and boar hair off of his clothes. It wasn't a great improvement. His outfit, which consisted of baggy pants, a sleeveless shirt and a vest, might have looked better on him if he were ten years younger, but I kind of doubt it. He had the kind of face you think of when someone says the word 'thick headed': huge jaw, huge nose and although I couldn't see much of his forehead with the bandana covering it, I was willing to bet it was huge too. The man was only one generation removed from Neanderthals.

He turned around and gave a two-fingered salute to the old man, who was taking the destruction of his home much better than I would have.

"Hey! How's it hangin', old man?"

"_Ganju!_" The Elder finally found his voice. "What are you doing here? Go home!"

Ganju smiled and shrugged. "Hey, is that how you greet an old friend? Look, you're scaring your guests."

For the record, I would not call anyone who boar tosses their way through my front door a friend, nor would I call them something to be scared of. Ganju was quickly being filed in the 'People I Should' cabinet, subfolder 'Compare to Head Lice'.

"_You are scaring them!" _

Ganju just grinned some more.

And then he stopped grinning like someone had flipped a switch. It took me a second to figure out why and then I followed his line of sight to see him staring at Ichigo like he'd never seen anything like him before.

Ichigo stared back, less out concern for what was _clearly_ an evolutionary throwback and more out of concern for what this meant for himself.

"…What? What are you starin' at me for?" Ichigo asked.

"What the…" Ganju mumbled softly. Then his teeth gritted, his face turned red around the cheeks and he took off his ridiculous sunglasses (yep, huge eyebrows. Another point for my theory) to yell at the old man, half question and half accusation, "What the hell is a Soul Reaper doing here?"

Okay, that was new. Most of the people we'd met thus far hadn't exactly welcomed us with open arms, but they hadn't been outright hostile either. Most had just ignored us once we didn't do anything.

"Well?" Ganju asked again, but this time it was to Ichigo himself. Ganju had gotten the bright idea to seriously invade Ichigo's personal space and was currently an inch away from the carrot top's face. If the vein that had already begun to throb on Ichigo's right temple was an indicator, there was no way this would end well for Ganju.

…Where was some popcorn?

"Speak up! What's a…"

He had begun lightly slapping Ichigo's face.

3…

"Stinking Soul Reaper…"

2…

"Doing here?"

And 1.

"_I asked you a question, you -"_

Ichigo's punch caught Ganju flat in kisser and actually lifted the moron off his feet, hurtling him through the doorway he had crashed through a minute earlier. I wasn't sure how much of the power behind Ichigo's swing was his spirit energy and how much was anger. It could have gone either way with him.

'_Note to self – get a rematch with that guy someday soon.'_

Ganju rolled up to his feet and slapped one hand over his aggrieved injury. "You picking a fight, dandelion head?"

I was amazed he could actually form words with the damage to his jaw. Either Ichigo wasn't as strong as I thought he was or Ganju's pre-Tarantian skeleton structure gave him more protection.

"_You_ picked the fight, pig straddler! You start in on me for no reason and expect me to do nothing about it! What kind of moron are you?" Ichigo yelled.

"Oh, he had a reason," Mizuiro said from out of the blue. "You see, several years ago he had an older brother named Kaien. Then one day, a -"

Ganju moved fast, but Ichigo was faster. He blocked Ganju's first attack, but didn't catch the kick to his stomach in time and went down.

"You damn well know why and you still had to ask?" Ganju hollered.

("Well, we _don't_ know why. Only Mizuiro does," Keigo muttered.

"I'll explain later," Mizuiro promised.

"You really shouldn't go digging around in people's heads either, you know?"

"I'm bored.")

Meanwhile, I was yelling at Ichigo to get his act together. Here's why: a while back, Ichigo finally managed to beat me in a sparring match. It was a one time thing and the score still stands at about one thousand to me and that one to him, but he'd never agreed to a rematch since then. Until I beat him again, I would always have to wonder if Ichigo was stronger than me. Therefore, if Ganju beat Ichigo, it meant Ganju was also theoretically stronger than me and _I refused to exist in a universe where that was my reality! _

"_GAMBATTE, ICHIGO! ENDURE, RISE AND CONQUER!" _

"I am, damn it!" Ichigo yelled, right before Ganju lowered his shoulder and rammed Ichigo in the solar plexus.

"Ichigo!" Orihime and Uryuu yelled at the same time.

They started to run out of the house to help (I followed out of a desire to keep watching the fight), but four more boars cut them off from Ichigo. The only thing weirder than seeing a grown man riding a giant boar is seeing four others do it at the same time.

"Don't mess with the boss man," said their ringleader. He could have been a Goth punk from the Warring States Era.

"If you try to help your friend, you'll have to deal with us," said another one behind him. He had on sunglasses and his hair was cut short everywhere except in the front, where it was styled into a ridiculous spike.

The other two guys weren't much better. One had an afro and a constipated look on his face, and the other was almost more thuggish looking than Ganju. Almost.

To be fair, I wasn't actually planning on helping Ichigo. He never did like other people butting in on his fights and if I had interfered, I'd have never known who was stronger between Ichigo and Ganju. Still, these guys were asking for it almost as bad as their friend was.

"Okay," I said with a little too much cheer.

I went for the Goth guy first. I don't know why, but his hairstyle really pissed me off. One flying punch had him falling from his high horse (boar, to be technical) and eating dirt. While I did that, something huge came whistling from behind me and ruffled my hair as it passed. One quick look told me that someone (I'm betting Yasutora) had thrown Ichigo his sword. By the time he grabbed it, I'd tackled the thuggish looking guy from his seat and had begun pummeling his skull into the ground.

"Hey, you _hurk!_"

I turned around and saw that Yasutora had simply lifted the man in sunglasses off of his boar and was holding him up by the back of his vest. Uryuu, sharp as he was, had spent that same time forming that energy bow of his and was aiming a nasty looking arrow of the same stuff at the man in the afro.

This happened in about seven seconds.

I hadn't even needed to call my armor.

'_Yeah, we're awesome.'_

Mr. Sunglasses gave one last squirm and then yelled, "Boss, retreat!"

Ganju half turned, said "Wha -" and then Ichigo cracked him across the head with the broadside of Zangetsu. The poor sucker dropped like a sack of rocks and the noise from our ruckus faded entirely.

'…_Okay. Or maybe they just suck.' _

"ENOUGH!"

I twitched, associating that voice in that tone with pain and humiliation. Turning around slowly, feeling like a schoolyard brat about to be switched, I stared at my feline teacher and took calm, cool, resigned note of the fire burning in his lamp bright eyes.

"One day, you will all _listen to me_ when I say stop. Twice now, you have ignored me: at the gate with Jidanbo and just now with your fight against Ganju and his thugs. I will _not_ have this anymore."

Come to think of it, I had sort of heard someone yelling 'stop you idiots, don't fight him, I wish I could kill you all myself', but I'd been focusing on the fight at the time, so….

"Now, if Inoue-san would kindly heal all those injured, we could talk to Ganju reasonably and _not_ have to explain to Kukaku why we should be given aid after having _beaten Kukaku's younger brother to within an inch of his life!" _

…Um…wow….

Oops.

* * *

It took some doing, but the thugs who were still conscious agreed to lead off the boars so we could drag Ganju and the others back inside. Every time we tried before then had ended with us doing some serious gymnastics to avoid being gored. However much they may have liked to toss their riders around, the boars actually did appear to care for them. Once we got rid of them however, it was a simple matter of dropping the circus act next to the fire and having Orihime fix them up. All that work on Jidanbo must have given her a better understanding of how to fix Soul Society people, because she had all of them up and moving before five minutes had passed.

"You are not Yoruichi-san," Ganju said bluntly.

That wasn't to say we didn't have problems.

Ganju's first act upon awakening was to attack Ichigo _again_ and force the rest of us to tackle him to the floor. Now, having been (forcibly) calmed down to the point where he would sort of listen to us, he was refusing to believe that sensei was who he said he was.

"I only saw Yoruichi-san once, but I didn't see a cat back then."

"I assure you, I am Shihouin Yoruichi. My current shape is simply a disguise I adopt from time to time. Kukaku will know me for who I am, so I ask you, again, to take us to your home," Yoruichi-sensei said very reasonably.

Ganju scoffed. "Like I'd bring a _Shinigami_ and his crew to my house _ow god stop it please!_"

About two seconds later, he agreed to take us to his house.

'_Obey sensei, you clumsy moron. OBEY!' _

* * *

The scratches had stopped bleeding by the time a rather subdued Ganju led us out of the town area and into the nearby fields. It was dark by then and we were all getting kind of tired, but Yoruichi-sensei insisted we press on. For one thing, this Kukaku character would have better accommodations and for another, no one really wanted to keep an eye on Ganju all night to make sure he didn't take off after his friends, who had split on his word after he caved to Yoruichi-sensei's demand.

We had been walking for almost an hour, the only light coming from the moon, before Ichigo cracked and started whining. He's still fours years old in a lot of ways.

"Hey, are you sure you're taking us in the right direction?"

"Of course!" Ganju snapped. "I know where my own home is, you dunce! We just live way out in boonies, is all."

"How come?" Keigo asked.

"Well, among other things, it keeps the complaints about the noise level down. And besides, if you stay away from towns, then you don't have people nagging you about property lines."

It should come as no surprise to you people that, between Ganju being related to Kukaku by blood and Ganju's own short speech that I just repeated to you, I was beginning to build an image of Kukaku that more and more resembled a flea ridden, hairy, low-browed lumberjack with bad teeth.

Shame on me, I know.

It was closing in on eleven O'clock when we finally reached the Shiba house.

Ganju didn't even have to say it. We knew it was his because it the only house nearby and even more so because of the huge banner that was held up over the house by two ginormous hands, which were attached to similarly sized arms that were planted into the ground on either end of the house. The banner declared, in big bold characters:

**Shiba Kukaku **

I was suddenly very glad that it was night, because if anyone had seen me willingly go into that sideshow attraction, I would have had to kill myself.

"Everyone's probably still up and waiting for me," Ganju muttered. Then he winced and visibly deflated. "I am _so dead_."

"I highly doubt that," Yoruichi-sensei said. "Now go and announce our presence to your sibling and retainers."

The retainers were almost as strange as Ganju. They were almost identical, each one being huge, muscular and bald. It was like something you'd see at a Barnum and Bailey's Circus show. Near as I could see, the only real differences between them were their names (Shiroganehiko and Koganehiko) and their shirts (white for Koganehiko and yellow for Shiroganehiko). Well, their faces were also a little different around the chin, but not so that it really stood out. I only noticed that because I couldn't stop staring at them.

'_Okay. Between these guys and Ganju, I'm not sure I want to know what this Kukaku guy looks like.' _

And yet, I also totally did.

A gorilla in a tuxedo, perhaps?

Unlike Ganju, the retainers instantly recognized Yoruichi-sensei, despite the fact that he was a cat. What he looked like when he _wasn't_ a cat was something I was very keen on finding out. I'd kind of known he wasn't really a cat – most of the tricks he taught me were things that he'd mastered, but you needed two legs or two fists to do them right – but I hadn't known he could change back and forth between shapes at will. I'd asked him about a few times when we were training, but he was frustratingly closed mouthed about it. At first I thought maybe he'd been cursed into that shape, but what he had said to Ganju earlier had changed my mind. I was starting to think he just enjoyed being a cat.

Then again, I could have been wrong. Maybe changing back would have triggered red alerts all over Soul Society and had people on his trail like lightning. Given that he was helping us to break into the _Seireitei_ and acting totally cool about it, not to mention the fact that he had the kind of knowledge you only get from personal experience, I was considering more and more the possibility that my furry little teacher had once worn a set of black robes. That was another reason he'd have to hide from Soul Society.

The two hulking servants led us through the door and down the set of stairs that immediately followed. Really, who the hell designed that place? Ganju followed them like a man being dragged to his own execution. I would soon understand why.

We were told to wait a few steps from a shoji screen door that separated us from the next room. Ganju couldn't stop wringing his hands. The two menservants kneeled by the door and, without any noticeable signal from them, we heard someone talking through the screen.

"Koganehiko. Shiroganehiko. I'm guessing my brother finally got around to dragging his sorry ass back?"

"Master Ganju has returned, yes, but he had also brought guests with him, Master Kukaku," Shiroganehiko replied.

There was a thump from behind the screen, like someone had dropped something heavy, and then a flurry of cursing started. Ganju gulped audibly. Not long after, the sound of angry footsteps began coming towards the screen.

"God _damn it_ Ganju, if you brought your stinking boars in here again, I'll –"

The screen slid open hard enough to rattle the entire frame. Once the speaker caught sight of us, the tirade ceased. We were kind of speechless too.

Kukaku was a woman.

Not only a woman, but a rather roguishly beautiful one at that, even if she was missing her right arm a little below the shoulder. And she had a pair of casaba melons that were larger than Orihime's. I didn't think I'd ever see the day I met a person like that.

Kukaku spent a moment staring at us. She was, obviously, caught completely flatfooted. It didn't take her very long to recover though. The moment her eyes landed on Yoruichi-sensei, she gave a tiny, rough sounding laugh.

"Hey Yoruichi," Kukaku drawled. "It's been a while."

"Hello Kukaku," Yoruichi-sensei replied cordially. "I've come for a favor."

"Yeah, you usually do." Kukaku scrubbed her hand through her messy black hair, ruffling the odd covering she had wrapped around her head. It didn't cover everything and bits of her messy hair stuck out in the gaps.

"Okay," Kukaku sighed. "I'll hear you out. In the meantime, everybody else eats and then Koganehiko and Shiroganehiko will show you to your beds."

"But sis!" Ganju suddenly burst. He had been very quiet until then. "They're with a _Shinigami_! You can't just -"

Kukaku high kicked him. No warnings, no movement, nothing: she was by the door one second and then she was right in our group, sending Ganju flying down the hallway. I hadn't even seen her move.

'_Shit, maybe we should invite her for the ride.'_

"My house, my rules, brat," Kukaku growled. "The Shiba family may be on hard times, but our hospitality ain't dead yet. Now show these kids where the kitchen is and, since you were so damn late coming home, you can help make their dinner. Now, hop to!"

* * *

There isn't much to say about what happened after. Well, other than Shiba Kukaku is a very scary woman and I think I'm going to idolize her for a really long time. We had a hot meal, which was awesome after everything we'd been through, and then Koganehiko led us to some guest rooms. I was out like a light until morning, when Orihime glommed onto me in her sleep and nearly strangled me.

After breakfast, we were led back into Kukaku's receiving room, where she and Yoruichi-sensei were waiting for us.

"Okay," Kukaku began as soon as we were seated. "Yoruichi explained your situation and I've decided to help you all out. I've got a method that'll get you all past the walls. Whether or not you do so in one piece is up to you lot."

Oh yeah, that sounded safe.

"Come on. There's something you should see."

Why had we even sat down? We were up again and following Kukaku as she and her two servants led us deeper into the household. We entered a room that almost matched the gym at school for sheer size. In the center was a large round platform, with a cylinder that shot up and disappeared through a hole in the ceiling.

"What is that?" Keigo wondered aloud.

Laughing, Kukaku jumped onto the platform and patted the massive cylinder fondly. "This, kiddo, is what's going to get you into the Soul Society. This is what's going to send you over the wall."

"Did she just say 'over'?" Uryuu echoed.

Somehow, Kukaku heard him. She grinned a very sharky smile.

"That's right," Kukaku crowed. "I'm Shiba Kukaku: _Rukongai's_ premier fireworks expert!"

What followed was the same kind of reaction she could have gotten by saying she'd eaten a baby for breakfast. There was a very brief moment of silence, then a unanimous "WHAT?"

Okay, when I'd signed on for this escapade, I'd accepted a certain level of danger would be involved. I had not expected to be _blown to bits in a friggin' cannon!_

"A _fireworks_ expert?" Ichigo yelled.

"Yep," Kukaku said proudly. She then looked up at the ceiling and shouted, "Koganehiko! Shiroganehiko! Hoist us up!"

The room started shaking. Someone yelled earthquake, but I doubted it was something so normal. I looked up and, sure enough, something was changing. At first I thought the ceiling was lowering, but in actuality the floor we were standing on was rising. The ceiling split open down the middle as we approached it and pulled back to slide into the walls. Sunshine glared down at us and we rose up into it from the depths of the Shiba house. Once we were outside, I saw the two hulking menservants panting by a small two-lever hand pump which had, presumably, been what lifted the gymnasium-sized room out into the open.

I would like to ask again: who the hell had built this sideshow attraction?

"Did that scare you?" Kukaku laughed from her place on the pedestal. "This is Shiba Kukaku's exclusive fireworks launch pad!"

"The Flower-Crane Cannon!" Ganju announced proudly.

His enthusiasm only made it sadder when Kukaku kicked him off the pedestal and back down to our level.

"I said _Kukaku's_ exclusive fireworks launch pad! Who said you could come onto the pedestal?"

'_I love this woman more and more each passing hour.'_

"This is no time for jokes!" Uryuu shouted angrily, while Keigo whimpered in the background ("I don't want to be a human cannonball! It's such a lame way to die!"). "I don't care if you're a fireworks _wizard_, there is no way you're launching -"

Kukaku threw something at Uryuu almost faster than I could see. It smacked him in the head, cut him off midsentence and flew through the air until Mizuiro snatched it before it hit the ground. Once it stopped moving, we all saw Mizuiro holding a large crystal ball with the image of some kind of bird inside of it.

"That," Kukaku said, "is a _reishikaku_ – a spirit core. Press your hands against it and fill it with your spirit energy."

Mizuiro gave a little 'hm' of interest and then I felt his spirit energy, which had been nearly nonexistent until that point, flare to high intensity and then focus on the point between his palms. The crystal ball lit up and then, with a loud popping sound, a sphere of energy appeared around Mizuiro.

"That is the cannonball," Kukaku said. "It's what's going to smash through the barrier around the _Seireitei_ and let you guys in."

"What do you mean?" I asked. "Aren't we going over the walls?"

"Yeah, but those aren't the only obstacles, kid," Kukaku explained. "Those walls are made of _seki-seki_ rock. It's a material that blocks spiritual energy and, since you're all made up of _reishi_ right now, colliding with them would definitely kill you. However, since _seki-seki_ also emits waves that block _reishi_, even the areas above and below the _Seireitei_ are walled off. There's no going around the barrier; just through it."

Huh. Then why hadn't I been affected when I was fighting Jidanbo? We'd been within spitting distance of the walls then.

"That's where the cannonball comes in. It's my own creation: the Special Hard Spiritual Partition Penetration Device!"

Next to Ichigo, Mizuiro had finally let the cannonball dissipate around him. He was breathing hard when he handed _reishikaku_ over to Ichigo and said "It's rather draining. You might have better luck, Ichigo."

Kukaku was still talking up on her platform. "By infusing the spirit core with your combined spiritual energies, you will be able to create a cannonball that will punch through the barrier! The plan is to fire it from the Flower-Crane Cannon and by that method, in you go! It's a rough ride, but there's no other way in! That's all! So, any questions?"

'_She's really enthusiastic about this.' _

There were definitely some questions.

Mine? I wanted to know if she'd done it before and, more importantly, if it had been a total success.

Unfortunately, we didn't get the chance to ask anything.

"Good! Then you're all dismissed! Go down to the dojo and start practicing," Kukaku ordered. "Koganehiko, Shiroganehiko; escort them downstairs."

'_Wait, what? No!' _

"Let go of me _now_ or you're losing that hand!" I screamed.

"And you'd all better train hard," Kukaku called after us in a parting shot. "Because if even one of you loses focus, then it's BOOM!"

"What? _You never said that earlier!"_ Ichigo howled.

* * *

Focusing our powers into the ball was actually not that hard. Of course, Ichigo had some problems with it and it took him the entire day to get it down, but from what I learned later that wasn't too odd. Yoruichi-sensei had worked us all on finding and focusing our energy from day one and Uryuu had been doing it pretty much since he entered kindergarten, but Ichigo hadn't had that kind of training. He was a brute with more strength than finesse and his training had been more about learning to flatten anything that crossed his path and less about fine control.

As a result….

"Inoue-san! Great form!"

"Ishida-san! It's narrow, but it's getting there!" "Perhaps it's a reflection of his personality?"

"Sado-san! A little unstable, but what great strength!"

"Kojima-san! Right in one!" "What talent!"

"Asano-san! Your form is as it should be, but put more power into it!" "A stray bird would break that flimsy shield!"

"Arisawa-san! Great for a first timer!"

But Ichigo?

"Kurosaki-san! What _is_ it? I can't stand to look at it!" "Indeed! That formation is pathetic! You have no talent!"

It was kind of sad. Even sadder, actually, because with proper control, he could have made a better one than all of the rest of us. What he was giving off, however, was a wispy blue smoke that curled around him in a rough sphere for a few seconds before vanishing.

Eventually, between the frustration and the 'Ganehiko's unwanted commentary, Ichigo finally snapped, smashed Kuroganehiko's face in with the crystal ball and started yelling.

"I don't know how to do it, all right? Give me a tip or something, geez!"

Like I said, he _did_ eventually get it down, but it took a long time (and a near death experience. Kukaku hadn't been kidding about the BOOM thing). We stayed for dinner and then, in the late evening, we met up again at the launch pad.

My poor teacher's tail had been twisted out of shape by Ichigo in his stupefied slumber. He had promptly passed out after creating his cannonball, which should tell you how much energy he'd shoved into the damn thing. Then, when Yoruichi-sensei had wandered near him while explaining to the rest of us how to combine our spiritual energy, Ichigo had reached out seized his tail in a death grip. I had to full-body stomp his wrist to make him let go and I wasn't in time to prevent the damage done. Now my teacher had a rear that you could have used to hang him from a nail.

And of course the idiot _didn't remember doing it._

Ganju came up after Ichigo, panting hard like he'd run all the way. Which he had. He'd felt the need to change into, and I quote, 'custom made battle costume' before leaving. Though we had not heard of it until then, one of Kukaku's requirements for agreeing to help us was letting Ganju come along to oversee the operation.

Now, I could go on about Ganju's big dramatic revelation of how a Soul Reaper had killed his brother, but I won't. If you want the drama, talk to Orihime. I've been wading through all this garbage to get to the good stuff and now it's so close you can just smell it, can't you? So do you really want to hear someone else's story?

…Nah, didn't think so.

There might be some other players in this game, but in the end, this is about me.

So let's get to the good stuff.

Kukaku opened the base of cannon with a wave of her hand. Don't ask me how that worked. We filed inside and it sealed behind us, locking us all in a cold, dark tower with only the barest hint of dawn's light visible through the top. We stood in a circle with one hand from each of us holding up the crystal ball in the center and Yoruichi-sensei, who stood on top of it.

"Listen to me," Yoruichi-sensei began. "This is the last chance for talk we will have for some time, I think. So remember these things: stay together once we are inside. If you meet _anyone_ of the captain class, those who wear a white _haori_, flee immediately and without question. Do not take unnecessary risks. Do not place your trust in anyone within those walls. All Soul Reapers you see from this moment on will be your enemy. Remember that we are here to rescue Rukia. They are her jailors and they will not simply let you walk out with her. Once we have secured her, we will leave immediately. I already have an escape route planned, so leave that part to me. Understood?"

"Yes," we all said. Our voices echoed in the huge, hollow tube.

Outside, I could faintly hear Kukaku shouting something and I could feel a massive amount of energy being gathered.

"It's begun," Mizuiro said.

"Now, combine your energies!" Yoruichi-sensei yelled.

As easy as breathing (for me, anyway), we did.

Ichigo: a living force of nature, holding the kind of power you should only see in a tsunami.

Orihime: bright and gentle, but with the strength of a willow tree beneath it all saying 'bend, but never break'.

Uryuu: focused, calm and somehow different from all the rest of us. Was it the Quincy in him?

Mizuiro: his power was aware, an extension of himself, and it flickered around all of us to adjust accordingly without a bit of hesitation.

Yasutora: a rockslide held in check, a gorilla behind bars. Unrefined and ruff, yeah, but so much strength.

Keigo: the weakest by far, but hard to pin down. His energy faded from awareness, even though I could still feel the pressure from his power brushing against mine.

Ganju: Determination, raw hurt, fierce anger, wild glee and quiet pride all roiling together to make something that had his name stamped on it in bold letters.

Sensei: There weren't words to describe him. Powerful, but subtle. Old, but lively. Self assured, but wary. Form of a cat, but the feel of something else. And….

…_Feminine? What the hell?' _

There was no more time to think.

I could feel the explosion even through the barrier. The air compressed to an insane degree for a fraction of a second, but it was long enough for me to feel it and know that if it weren't for the barrier, I'd have been in a million little pieces and so would everyone else. Then, with nowhere else to go, the pressure began blasting up to the opening at the top and taking us with it. Despite that, however, it was a fairly smooth process. No bumps or jolts along the way.

We lifted out of the cannon mouth and then slowly arced through the air. I was seeing a problem with this immediately.

"What the hell?" I yelled at Ganju. "Is your sister losing her touch? We're gonna hit the ground before we cross into _Seireitei_ at this rate!"

"Idiot," Ganju smirked. "It's coming now."

I blinked. "What's com -"

We shot towards the _Seireitei_ with all of the force that we seemed to be missing the moment I opened my mouth a second time. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to fly a jet without the cockpit shielding you? Well, _it's awesome. _

Ganju pulled a long list of incantations from his sleeves and unfolded them. Then he looked up at us and, for once, I couldn't find anything stupid or funny in his face.

"Okay, listen up! The Flower-Crane Cannon launch method is a two part process. Sis blasting us into the air was the first part. Now I'm starting the second part. I'll be guiding our acceleration and trajectory for a pinpoint landing, so don't interrupt me or bother me unless you want to die!"

Well, he certainly had our attention at that point.

"Now, to control the trajectory we need to adjust the output of our energy. I'm going to start the incantation now, so I won't have time to correct you. Just feel the amount of energy I'm putting into the ball and adjust your own accordingly. We clear?"

We were clear. We may have learned that death didn't entirely suck, but that didn't mean any of us were hot to experience it right away.

Ganju started chanting and we all followed his directions, lowering or raising our energy output until it was even with his. Keigo and Mizuiro, the two underdogs of the group in terms of power, were already starting to have a hard time, Keigo in particular. Ichigo, however, had the opposite problem.

"Kurosaki-kun, you need to lower your power more. It's too much right now," Orihime said.

Ichigo looked surprised, I noticed. Had he really not known? "Oh, really? Okay then."

And he _did_ lower it.

But not nearly enough.

"Kurosaki, _lower it_. You're giving off too much power!" Uryuu snapped. I couldn't blame him. Ichigo was screwing up our rhythm.

"I did!"

"Lower it more!" I yelled. "You're at fifty and we need four!"

"_Okay!_" Ichigo yelled back.

I felt his power level go down, down, down and down, but still not by enough. Fuck, what _was_ this guy?

"Ichigo," Yasutora said ominously.

"I _know!_"

Then things went to hell in a hand basket even faster when Ganju screwed up the incantation.

"YOU _IDIOT!_" Ganju shouted. "I READ THE SAME LINE TWICE BECAUSE OF YOU!"

"HOW IS THIS MY FAULT!" Ichigo countered.

"YOU WERE YELLING SO MUCH THAT I MESSED UP!"

"Both of you, stop it! There's no time for this!" Orihime yelled.

'_Okay, we may be screwed.'_

"Uh, guys?" Keigo said quietly. We all looked at him and he pointed to the path the cannonball was taking us. We obligingly turned to see for ourselves.

There, below and ahead of us, was the fast approaching _Seireitei_.

And we still hadn't finished the second part of the launch process.

'_Okay, we are __**definitely**__ screwed.' _

"Fuck, there's no time," Ichigo cursed. "Everyone just shove energy into the ball and harden it as much as you can! We're just gonna have to bash through and hope for the best!"

"Yeah, because that worked so well with Jidanbo and the White Gate!" Keigo yelled.

"KEIGO, SHUT UP!"

The barrier around the inner Soul Society was becoming visible. It had the kind of sparkling glow that just screamed 'touch me! Touch me! I'll only kill you dead, hee hee'. I could see buildings, streets, parks, training yards and, very faintly, tiny black specks that darted to and fro.

'_Hope we don't land on one,'_ I prayed.

"NOW!" Ichigo yelled.

I threw every ounce of my power into the ball and felt the others do the same. I didn't understand how it could possibly withstand all that energy influx without shattering, but it did. Somehow, none of us lost control either.

We crashed headlong into the _Seireitei's_ barrier at what felt like a million miles an hour.

_

* * *

_

Next time – This was _so __not part of the plan. Why didn't anyone think to bring walky-talkies? _

_Hey, it's been a while. I've signed up for NaNoWriMo this year, so no more updates on anything until December. Have fun and a Happy Turkey Day!_

_Gambatte__ – a term used in martial arts. It has a lot of meanings, some very deep and profound, but at its simplest it means 'endure'._


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